Ciceley’s staffing
shake-up paid
off straight awayBTCC THRUXTON RACE CENTRE22 AUGUST 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 47experience the deteriorating grip levels each
lap, Cammish was on the team radio trying to
get as much information as possible about
the conditions. And, thanks to some old
tricks, he kept the final laps clean to wrap
up the victory by almost 2s over Collard.
“I was saying to the team, ‘Look, get in the
pitlane. Tell me exactly how much this rain
is coming down now,’” said Cammish. “Even
a little bit of rain out there feels like a lot
when it falls on the windscreen. They said,
‘Don’t worry about it, it’s not a lot’, but as I
slid through Turn 1 I thought, ‘You guys are
telling me a couple of lies.’ I could see then
that it was really coming.
“It was about managing it, hitting the
track at the right speed and managing
the gap to Rob. There were no heroics in
that – he was consolidating second, which
allowed me to consolidate first. I was
managing the rain, keeping off the kerbs,
using every bit of karting knowledge I have.
You learn these things along the way.”
Dynamics technical director Barry
Plowman confirmed that Cammish
“panicked initially a little bit”, but the team
reassured their driver that the rain had
come late enough that no one was going
to pit for wet tyres and make a late surge.
That proved to be the case, and allowed
Cammish to bring the car home for his third
BTCC career win and boost him to third in
the standings – 34 points shy of leader
Colin Turkington. Combined with the race
one podium, it had been a profitable display.
“Of course I was happy to be on the
podium in race one,” said Cammish. “But
when you’re consistently the ‘almost man’
you’ve got to start asking yourself, ‘What’s
going on? I feel like I’m driving the
Thruxton has been kind to Adam Morgan
and his Ciceley Motorsport-run Mercedes
A-Class over the years.
In the 2016 season, Morgan earned a
podium in each of the races at the venue,
and last year he even departed Hampshire
as the overall points leader.
Let alone first place in the standings,
even the chance of three top-three finishes
last weekend looked bleak. Except for a
final-race third place at Brands Hatch, his
2019 campaign had so far been immensely
frustrating and short on success.
Added to his unsighted impact into the
side of Andrew Jordan’s BMW 330i M Sport
at Donington Park, he twice retired at
Snetterton thanks to gearbox and power
steering failures. A lowly 17th spot in the
championship heading into last weekend
was not reflective of a driver of
considerable speed and consistency.
Before the fug began to suffocate,
Ciceley Motorsport decided to take action.
Out went two staffers, in came ex-Jason
Plato engineer Paul Ridgway and Steve
Farrell, with whom Morgan has worked
for the past two years in the Chinese
Touring Car Championship.
The impact was immediate: third,
second and fourth last weekend.
“It’s clear to see what having a fresh pair
of eyes and a different approach can do,”
said Morgan. “We’ve not tried to reinvent
the wheel; we’re still using everything the
same but just put together differently.
“It was time for a change. The bad luck
has been no one’s fault but we wanted to
come away from the final four rounds of
the year knowing the car is still capable.”
The A-Class made its British Touring CarMORGAN’S REINVIGORATING RESTRUCTUREChampionship debut in 2014, designed
and built originally by Ridgway. Last year
Morgan proved it was still competitive, but
that was yet to carry over into this season.
Such was the difficulty in extracting
results from the A-Class in 2019 that fellow
Merc runner Laser Tools Racing chose
to return the Infiniti Q50 to the series
fter a four-year hiatus.
“All of a sudden, over a winter, you don’t
lose that ability,” said Morgan. “The car is
still quick, the car can still do it. We need
to remember that and not go into a mad
panic and rush to buy a different car.
We’ve stuck with it.”
Ridgway is fixture-tied and won’t be
back for Knockhill, but Farrell will return
with the team. That means the salvage
job is well and truly on.STAT34
Third-placed Cammish
is now 34 points behind
BTCC leader
Turkington