BTCC – Donington Park: Event Analysis
The opening rounds of the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship took place at Donington Park, as supposed to the usual season opener at Brands Hatch Indy. However, Donington as usual did not disappoint, with 3 cracking races producing 3 very deserving winners, and setting the scene for the 63rd season of the BTCC.
Race 1:
After dominating Saturday, the pace of Colin Turkington’s BMW 330i M Sport mysteriously disappeared, leaving him the cork in the bottle at the front. He held the lead from the start thanks to his rear wheel drive BMW, however his teammate wasn’t so lucky. He got into a scrap with BTC’s Josh Cook, with the 2 colliding at McLean’s Corner with Cook being span into the gravel.
2017 champion Ash Sutton was making his debut in the Infinity Q50, and showed immense pace. He was hounding leader Turkington right from the early laps, with Dan Cammish shadowing every move.
It only took until Lap 4 for Sutton to make the move on Turkington into McLean’s, however they made contact, giving Cammish the chance to divebomb both of them. Cammish and Sutton banged doors up the hill to Coppice, with Cammish taking the lead. There was then a concertina effect with Ingram hitting Turkington who hit Sutton, spinning Sutton out and down to the back of the field.
Motorbase’s Rory Butcher was the big winner, being promoted up to P3 in the Focus ST.
Further down the order, Chris Smiley was having a stunning race in the new-for-2020 Hyundai i30, Hyundai’s first race in the BTCC. On Lap 6 he was battling with Morgan, Jackson and Jelley over P9, with Smiley taking the position and leaving Smiley under attack from Tom Chilton.
At the end of that Lap, Jake Hill pulled into the pitlane to become the first retirement of the season, with reported engine issues.
Cook was fighting his way up the field after being hit off on Lap 1, however he found himself in the wars again on Lap 7. He tried to make a move on the Team HARD BMW of Carl Boardley at the chicane but was forced onto the grass on the exit, managing to keep his Honda out of the wall. It was proving a difficult first race for BTC Racing.
More drama occurred on Lap 9, with Adam Morgan’s Mercedes being hit off into the chicane by Jackson’s Motorbase Ford, after Morgan tried to make a move. Morgan had to cut across the gravel losing lots of time, while Jackson was also mugged by several cars.
A mighty teammate battle then began between the Audi’s of rookie James Gornall and Bobby Thompson. They went side-by-side down the Craner Curves, with Thompson taking the position, before Gornall pulled alongside again down the back straight and repassed his teammate into the chicane.
Thompson wasn’t going to give up however, and the pair went door-to-door down the pit straight into Turn 1, and again down the Craner Curves with Gornall winning out. Thompson then came back at him again down the back straight, retaking the position.
Just in front of them, the other Hyundai of Senna Proctor started billowing smoke, and pulled off at Redgate, while at the same time Nic Hamilton, brother of Lewis Hamilton, went off into the gravel at the chicane and into retirement, deploying a Safety Car.
On the restart, Ingram dived up the inside of Oliphant into Redgate, taking 4th away, with Matt Neal following him into P5.
On Lap 18, Sutton was continuing his charge, made his way past 3 cars into Redgate, including his teammate Moffat.
However up front it was Dan Cammish who won the opening race of the 2020 BTCC season, his first race since his gutting brake failure in the 2019 finale with 1 lap to go that cost him the title.
Race 1 results:
Race 2:
Before Race 2 even started, Proctor and Gornall were ruled out due to the issues they suffered in Race 1 not being fixed in time. Jake Hill almost joined them on the sidelines, but just about made it out of the pitlane for the formation lap.
Cammish was on pole but Turkington won the start into Redgate, with Rory Butcher hounding Cammish for P2.
Ollie Brown on his debut weekend suffered technical issues in his Team HARD Volkswagen CC, pulling into the pits after the first lap.
Meanwhile a 4-way battle for P2 ensued, with Cammish fending off Butcher, Oliphant and Ingram, with Ingram passing Oliphant into Coppice on Lap 2.
Jelley was battling Neal for P6, with Neal being held up and causing chaos behind with Osborne, Chilton and Smiley all battling to get through.
On Lap 4, Rory Butcher made the move on Cammish into the chicane for 2nd place, with Ingram and Oliphant following through on Lap 5 as Cammish’s Honda struggles with the 60kg of success ballast.
On Lap 6, a big battle was going on between Chilton, Sutton, Osborne, Smiley and Cook for P8, before Morgan, Cook and Osborne went 3-wide down the Craner Curves, with Morgan winning the position. Sutton was charging, passing Chilton into Coppice despite making contact on the entry, and secured P8.
Hamilton then brought out the Safety Car when he found himself beached in the gravel at Coppice, making 2 retirements from 2 races for the ROKiT Team HARD VW.
On the restart, Jelley, Sutton and Chilton went 3-wide into the chicane for P7, with Sutton making a supreme pass on them both by sweeping around the outside of both cars, before Jelley pushes Chilton onto the grass.
The Infinity driver continued his charge, picking off Adam Morgan, Matt Neal and Dan
Cammish before the end of the race.
Meanwhile, Colin Turkington dominated Race 2, with the BMW seemingly much more comfortable than others in carrying success ballast.
Race 2 results:
Race 3:
Chris Smiley won the reverse grid pole draw, giving Hyundai a pole in their first BTCC event. All 26 cars started the final race of the day.
Jackson made the better start from second on the grid, cutting across Smiley, who in avoidance nearly took out Jelley.
Cook then got underneath Jelley out of Redgate and took P3 away from the Team Parker car, as the rookies of Jack Butel and Ollie Brown collided at the Old Hairpin. The Safety Car was deployed but only for 1 lap as both cars dragged themselves out of the gravel.
On the restart, Cook was left napping as Jackson and Smiley launch away from the fest of the field. Cammish was trying to pass Jelley for P5, as Sutton then dives past Cammish before picking off Sutton at the chicane, forcing Jelley wide.
Jake Hill once again retired with another engine issue, despite going through 2 engines prior to the final race, capping off a miserable day for the MB Motorsport driver.
On the end of Lap 4, Team HARD’s Jack Goff’s poor weekend finished with a broken rear toelink. He was able to drag his VW into the pitlane however so no Safety Car was necessary.
Cook was hounding Smiley in the battle for P2, while Sutton was catching the 4-car train for the lead.
Cammish and Jelley continued to battle for P6, with Jelley spinning out of the chicane while Tom Ingram nearly followed suit.
Out of nowhere on Lap 7, Smiley dived up the inside of Jackson at the Old Hairpin to take the lead away, with Cook, Morgan and Sutton hounding Jackson as a result, falling down to 5th from 1st in half a lap.
At the end of Lap 9, Sutton made his way past Cook and began the charge for the lead against Smiley, and it only took a lap until he made the move on Smiley into the chicane.
Thompson and Crees were battling over the final points positions on Lap 12, but the Audi driver lost the rear at the chicane and narrowly avoided crashing out.
Ingram and Cammish once again found themselves battling each other, with the Toyota driver passing Cammish into the chicane for P6.
On the penultimate lap, Proctor went of at McLean’s but managed to drive through the gravel and rejoined the race.
Nothing could stop Ash Sutton, easily the fastest driver all day, finally taking victory, and taking the first win for Infinity in the BTCC, while Smiley gave Hyundai their first podium on their debut weekend.
Race 3 results:
The Drivers' and Teams' Championship standings after Round 1 can be seen below:
The BTCC returns next weekend for Round 2, at the famous Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.
