Collard led the way in
race three until a small
mistake cost him dearFalse start sent Plato
through the pitlane,
killing hopes of a winRACE CENTRE BTCC THRUXTON
46 AUTOSPORT.COM 22 AUGUST 2019ince switching to full Next
Generation Touring Car
specification Honda Civics
back in 2012, Team Dynamics
has won a staggering 49 out
of the 231 races run in the British Touring
Car Championship. With a strike rate over
21%, it’s easy to see why its cars have
become so desirable. AmD Tuning bought
a brace of the previous-shape FK2 Civic
Type Rs for 2019, while BTC Racing
switched to two of the current FK8s.
Courtesy of Sam Tordoff’s and Josh
Cook’s triumphs in the opening races of the
second visit of the season to Thruxton,
ex-Dynamics cars have now notched up a
total of six victories this year. But, prior
to the finale last weekend, the factory-
supported squad had yet to see one of its
drivers on the top step of the podium. Then,
thanks to the composure of Dan Cammish,
time was finally called on Dynamics’
comparatively lengthy 21-race dry spell.
Cammish’s qualifying effort was 0.073sThe stroke of good fortune came with the
draw for the partially reversed grid ahead of
race three: only the top six cars would swap
order – the lowest possible number.
That meant Cammish would again line
up second, and this time he wasn’t going to
be as conservative. It was by no means the
perfect getaway, made to look even worse
as the fast-starting rear-wheel-drive BMW
330i M Sport of Tom Oliphant zipped past
to drop Cammish to third. Nevertheless,
this time only the one driver had nipped by.
Although all cars run the same standard
brake package, the Civic’s suspension set-up
means it’s a class act in the braking zones.
Combined with a healthy tow on the run
out of Church, Cammish dived round
the outside of the 3 Series on the approach
to the Club chicane to reclaim the position.
That left polesitter Rob Collard up ahead.
Twice Cammish teed up the same move as
he had pulled on Oliphant, before ducking
back behind the Power Maxed Racing
Vauxhall to maintain the order.
Then Cammish received another small
dose of luck as Collard slid wide on the exit
of the high-speed Church right-hander to
hamper his momentum. Making the most
of the slipstream, Cammish pulled ahead
even before stamping on the anchors.
“He just got ever so slightly out of shape
at Church and I was catching him all the
time with a tow down the back straight,”
Cammish said. “I thought, ‘If I can get more
than a good run, if I can get the best run
and be almost past him by the time we get
to Club, then I can just let the motor and
the aero do its thing.’”
The position was his, just as the rain
inconveniently arrived. As the first toshy of pole, and he started third behind
Tordoff and Jason Plato. But, for the second
time this season, two-time champion Plato
pulled up at the end of the green-flag lap
with his Vauxhall Astra’s bumper ahead of
the line denoting his grid box. That resulted
in a drivethrough penalty, boosting Cammish
to second behind Tordoff at the flag.
Although laden with success ballast,
Cammish’s Honda was 6kg lighter than
Tordoff’s for race two, so he had a genuine
shot at victory. But the win would have to
wait. He bogged down off the line and, in
his efforts to get the car back in the power
band, suffered masses of wheelspin in the
next phase of his launch. A couple of places
gained come the finish limited the damage,
but ultimately he returned fifth place.
“I don’t think you can get much closer to
stalling,” Cammish said. “With a bit of luck,
I saved it, dumped the clutch and off we
went. There was not enough throttle input
as I was trying to make too clean a start,
from which I erred on the side of caution.”S