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Honda's Cammish tops practice ahead of Brands Hatch BTCC finale

Factory Honda Civic driver Dan Cammish topped the timesheets after the two British Touring Car Championship free practice sessions at Brands Hatch

The Team Dynamics man recorded a 1m31 seconds (96.26mph) lap early on in the second 40-minute session building up to this weekend's three-race showdown on Sunday afternoon.

The 29-year-old, who is searching for his maiden win in the championship and carried no success ballast into the meeting, said he was delighted with the performance given his lack of experience with the car.

"I only get these free practice sessions to learn about front-wheel-drive around a track like this, the Brands Hatch Grand Prix layout," he said. "I have no personal databank to draw from, no reference points for that, and I am having to think on my feet.

"The team has worked really hard and it we have got the car hooked up. Hopefully we can now translate that into a result in qualifying this afternoon."

Cammish finished in front of 2017 champion Ash Sutton's Subaru Levorg GT.

Sutton had set the fastest time in the opening session in the morning before an oil leak forced him to stop running in the two-litre turbocharged machine.

However, worse was to follow in the second timed period as he cannoned into the barrier at Paddock Hill Bend after a suspected throttle problem, causing significant damage to the car, meaning the session was stopped with five minutes left to run.

Eutotech Racing Honda Civic Type R driver Jack Goff was third with a lap set in the second free practice session, ahead of the Pirtek-backed WSR BMW 125i M Sport of Andrew Jordan.

The Laser Tools Racing Mercedes-Benz A-Class of Aiden Moffat rounded out the top six.

The two main protagonists for the championship - Colin Turkington and Tom Ingram - carried 75kg and 66kg of ballast respectively.

Ingram, who is second in the points in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis, was sixth in the opening session of the day and then placed 10th in the second with an improved time of 1m31.386s.

Speedworks boss Christian Dick said: "We've been really pleased with the balance of the car from the first moments of the opening free practice session and things are all going to plan.

"We have a car that only needs a few tweaks rather than wholesale change, so we are in a good place so far. We are not expecting to be battling for pole with the weight that we have on the car, but we are satisfied with where we are at the moment."

Turkington took his WSR BMW 125i M Sport to 15th in the opening session and then 11th in the second with an improved lap time of 1m31.413s. The Northern Irishman has a 34-point buffer over Ingram heading into the finale on Sunday.

The 36-year-old said: "We have made decent progress through the practice sessions. We needed to find a bit more [grip] from the rear axle to settle the car down after FP1 and I think we got that for FP2.

"We also found some avenues that didn't really work - but that can be a positive thing. We can eradicate those for qualifying and hopefully we will take a step forwards."

FP1 result

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Ash Sutton Team BMR Subaru 1m31.090s
2 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 0.126s
3 Jack Goff Eurotech Racing Honda 0.192s
4 Tom Chilton Motorbase Ford 0.319s
5 Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 0.357s
6 Tom Ingram Speedworks Toyota 0.363s
7 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 0.364s
8 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 0.384s
9 Chris Smiley BTC Norlin Honda 0.451s
10 Mike Bushell Team Hard Volkswagen 0.452s
11 Daniel Lloyd BTC Norlin Honda 0.455s
12 Brett Smith Eurotech Racing Honda 0.469s
13 Senna Proctor Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 0.527s
14 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 0.571s
15 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 0.592s
16 Jason Plato Team BMR Subaru 0.756s
17 Josh Cook Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 0.912s
18 Ollie Jackson AmD Tuning Audi 0.925s
19 Tom Oliphant Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 1.082s
20 Rob Austin HMS Racing Alfa Romeo 1.096s
21 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 1.157s
22 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning MG 1.160s
23 James Cole Motorbase Ford 1.360s
24 Sam Tordoff Motorbase Ford 1.415s
25 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen 1.437s
26 Matt Simpson Simpson Racing Honda 1.586s
27 Sam Smelt AmD Tuning Audi 2.162s
28 Ricky Collard WSR BMW 2.360s
29 Ethan Hammerton Team Hard Volkswagen 2.568s
30 Josh Caygill AmD Tuning MG 4.770s
31 Ollie Pidgley Team Hard Volkswagen 7.681s

FP2 result

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 1m31.000s
2 Ash Sutton Team BMR Subaru 0.072s
3 Jack Goff Eurotech Racing Honda 0.085s
4 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 0.141s
5 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 0.158s
6 Brett Smith Eurotech Racing Honda 0.196s
7 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 0.240s
8 Matt Simpson Simpson Racing Honda 0.243s
9 Chris Smiley BTC Norlin Honda 0.367s
10 Tom Ingram Speedworks Toyota 0.386s
11 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 0.413s
12 Senna Proctor Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 0.472s
13 Tom Chilton Motorbase Ford 0.541s
14 Sam Tordoff Motorbase Ford 0.576s
15 Josh Cook Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 0.711s
16 Rob Austin HMS Racing Alfa Romeo 0.724s
17 Tom Oliphant Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 0.742s
18 Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 0.743s
19 Daniel Lloyd BTC Norlin Honda 0.773s
20 Mike Bushell Team Hard Volkswagen 0.939s
21 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen 1.021s
22 Ollie Jackson AmD Tuning Audi 1.123s
23 James Cole Motorbase Ford 1.161s
24 Jason Plato Team BMR Subaru 1.208s
25 Ricky Collard WSR BMW 1.387s
26 Ethan Hammerton Team Hard Volkswagen 1.596s
27 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 1.730s
28 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning MG 1.793s
29 Sam Smelt AmD Tuning Audi 1.805s
30 Ollie Pidgley Team Hard Volkswagen 2.618s
31 Josh Caygill AmD Tuning MG 4.165s


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