BTCC - Donington Park Review
The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship burst back into life for the second weekend of the year at the Leicestershire circuit of Donington Park.
Josh Cook. Source: Eric Barnes Photography
The first encounter of the day saw pole man Josh Cook make a decent getaway off the line, but was briefly demoted by BTC Norlin’s Chris Smiley who also started on the front row. The pair then swapped places again going down the Craner Curves and Cook re-took the lead. As the race went on it would be the Power Maxed Racing man who sped off into the distance and it would be Chris Smiley who would be the cork in the bottle as he led a huge train of cars waiting to get past him.
Eventually, the Honda of Dan Cammish, the Ford of Sam Tordoff and a whole host of others got past the Northern Irishman. Tom Chilton and Colin Turkington were both in the wars during the race, as Chilton went wide and onto the grass and Turkington was tagged by Senna Proctor and sent into a spin, putting him down the order.
Sam Tordoff’s podium aspirations went up in smoke as he had to pit late on with a suspected electrical failure and Aiden Moffat, Brett Smith and James Cole would battle it out for the final podium spot. Josh Cook ran away with it to take the win with Dan Cammish in second and Aiden Moffat in third.
Race two was a more feisty affair, as Tom Ingram would come from way down in 13th to take the win after a stellar drive. Dan Cammish got the lead early on from Josh Cook but the pace of the Honda would struggle mid race, as he was passed by Chris Smiley and Ingram. The Speedworks man then made his move for the lead on lap ten after Smiley ran wide coming out of Coppice and the Toyota ran alongside the Honda towards the chicane and then made the move stick at the final turn.
Tom Ingram. Source: Chequered Images
Jack Goff would complete the podium after another impressive drive from 12th on the grid and after a solid drive, Dan Cammish took fourth ahead of Adam Morgan, James Cole, Josh Cook, Ash Sutton, Rory Butcher and Tom Chilton rounding out the top ten.
It turned out to be three different winners from the three races at Donington Park as Adam Morgan claimed victory in the final encounter.
Pole sitter Rory Butcher held onto the lead initially in the first half of the opening lap but came unstuck towards the end of the lap as Ash Sutton and Adam Morgan nipped through.
Aiden Moffat. Source: Eric Barnes Photography
There was drama further back as a multi car incident took place at the Craner Curves which sent Senna Proctor, James Cole, Sam Tordoff, Brett Smith and Josh Price out of the race and subsequently brought out the safety car.
When the race got back underway the battle for the lead heated up on lap eight as Morgan squeezed his way past the Subaru of Sutton at the final chicane, with the latter eventually falling into the hands of the chasing pack.
There were some impressive battling going on throughout the field, but the more interesting one included the charging Rob Collard, Aiden Moffat, Tom Ingram and Andrew Jordan.
Josh Cook made a late challenge for the lead of the race but it proved not enough as Morgan held on to take his first win of the year.
Aiden Moffat got the better of his opponents to take the final spot on the podium from Rob Collard in 4th and Andrew Jordan in 5th, a much better end to the day for the BMW drivers.
Ash Sutton finished just outside the top five with Matt Neal making a late charge to claim 7th, Tom Ingram was bullied back down to 8th, Tom Chilton in 9th and Jake Hill completing the top ten order.
The dust has now settled on what was an excellent days racing at Donington Park, the championship will resume at Thruxton in Hampshire on the 19th/20th May.
