BTCC Brands Hatch – Sutton strikes first on finals day

Dan Cammish took the win in the first race of finals day at Brands Hatch. Ash Sutton took the championship lead with second and Tom Ingram rounded off the podium to keep his title hopes alive.

There were two green flag laps to warm the tyres with rain falling throughout the first race at Brands Hatch.

At the start Sutton moved up into second with Cammish up to third. The pair were fighting over second with Ingram in the lead. On lap four Cammish moved ahead of Sutton with the top three close together. Cammish did almost pass Ingram into Clearways but after a slight tap from the Honda driver, he backed off.

Sutton and Cammish were side by side on the pit straight before the Safety Car was brought out by a crash between Glyn Geddie and Sam Osborne at Druids.

After four laps we were back underway, with Cammish hot on the heels of Ingram. The Yorkshireman passing Ingram into Druids on lap 13 to take a lead he never relinquished.

Cammish was able to pull away as Sutton and Ingram fought for second. Sutton was next to pass the Toyota of Ingram on lap 22 as he hunted down Cammish for more points in the title battle.

In the last couple of laps Sutton was taking chunks of time out of Cammish’s lead, but he ran out of laps and Cammish took the win.

Sutton takes over the lead of the championship by two points from Colin Turkington, who could only finish ninth. Cammish is now 13 points behind with two races remaining with Ingram fourth and Rory Butcher’s slim title hopes now over despite a fine fourth place finish.

Image Credit: BTCC Media