Qualifying

Colin Turkington of Team BMW took pole position for Round 16 of the 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship, with a stunning lap in the ‘Quick Six’ session ahead of NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish and Team BRISTOL STREET MOTORS’ Tom Ingram.

Turkington has previously taken 14 victories at the North Yorkshire track, the most of any driver at a single circuit, and a pole position certainly seemed to promise more opportunities for the Northern Irish driver to increase his tally.

Track limits hampered multiple drivers such as: Dan Rowbottom (Alliance Racing) – who failed to make it into Q2 after having two of his lap times deleted; the Toyota duo of Josh Cook and Andrew Watson; and most notably Championship leader Jake Hill – who as a result of his deleted lap times saw him demoted to 11th overall.

During the ‘Quick Six’ Shootout, Turkington immediately set the pace with the other five remaining drivers unable to best him, making this his 29th career pole position, ahead of local boy Cammish who took the remaining front row spot after signing a new multi-year deal with the NAPA Racing UK outfit.

Ingram made a late charge in the session to take third, with Aron Taylor-Smith putting his Vauxhall Astra onto fourth on the grid. Rob Huff finished fifth, with Ashley Sutton taking sixth after becoming the victim of track limits once again.

Completing the top ten overall was Chris Smiley, Tom Chilton, Josh Cook and Mikey Doble.

Round 16

Colin Turkington was triumphant on Sunday in the first of three races, claiming his 70th British Touring Car Championship win at Croft, with a commanding lights-to-flag victory ahead of Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish.

The four-time BTCC champion had a great launch off the line, with Tom Ingram quick following suit getting past front-row starter Dan Cammish on the opening lap, and looking to pose a threat to Turkington.

However, once the tyres had warmed up, Turkington was able to extend his lead over Ingram, and maintain this gap all the way to the chequered flag – where he finished 1.746 seconds ahead of Ingram in second, whilst also bagging the fastest lap.

Ingram found himself locked in an intense battle with Cammish, going up the inside of the NAPA Racing UK driver going into the second corner at Hawthorns on the opening lap, before Cammish’s Ford Focus ST then skipped the chicane and had to concede the position to Ingram on the run into Tower.

Reigning BTCC champion Ash Sutton then managed to close the gap to now third-placed Cammish, with the racing neck-and-neck going into the final four laps, however, Cammish seemed to have enough in the tank to keep his teammate at bay and hang onto the final podium position at his local circuit.

Aron Taylor-Smith kept a constant fifth place for the rest of the race in what was a strong result for Power Maxed Racing, with Championship leader Jake Hill managing to hustle his Laser Tools Racing BMW from 11th to sixth place at the end of the 15-lap contest.

Speedworks Motorsport’s Rob Huff initially raised eyebrows when he opted to start on the hard tyre, but he eventually took the chequered flag in seventh, meaning for the remaining two races he would have the faster soft compound of tyre.

Rounding out the remaining points-scoring positions were Josh Cook, Tom Chilton and Dan Rowbottom, finishing in eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

Round 17

Josh Cook was victorious in Race 2 around the Croft Circuit after a late move on Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Rob Huff saw him claim his second win of the British Touring Car Championship season.

A drama-filled race from the start saw pole-sitter Colin Turkington of Team BMW make a decent getaway, before almost immediately being reeled in by Team BRISTOL STREET MOTORS’ Tom Ingram. The #80 Hyundai made a move around the outside of the #20 BMW at Tower Bend to take the lead, before all eyes moved to further down the grid to those on the soft compound Goodyear tyres.

NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton made a move on team-mate Dan Cammish to take third place before making contact with Race 1 winner Colin Turkington from behind on the approach to Tower on Lap 3. Turkington managed to manoeuvre his car back onto the track just inside the top ten after a brief excursion off the tarmac.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK’s Rob Huff was now up into second place followed closely by Cook and Dan Rowbottom who were all on the soft-compound tyres, with all three drivers making quick work of passing race leader Ingram one-by-one at Tower on three successive laps.

Jake Hill of Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport had been involved in a race-long battle with Team BRISTOL STREET MOTORS’ Tom Chilton, which eventually resulted in contact, with Hill going into the tyre barrier before being able to recover and finish the race – albeit out of the points.

Lap 13 saw the race-winning pass with Cook going around the outside of Huff’s Toyota Corolla at the Jim Clark Esses, with both drivers emerging unharmed and Cook going on to take his 20th career win in the BTCC.

The victory meant Cook had taken two wins in successive meetings, with Huff making a return to the podium after also winning one of the races at Snetterton at the last meeting before the short ‘summer break’. NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Rowbottom took his first podium of the season finishing in third place.

Championship leader Tom Ingram eventually had to settle for fourth place ahead of Sutton and Cammish who completed the top six. Rounding out the top ten was Aron Taylor-Smith, Tom Chilton, Colin Turkington and Aiden Moffat.

Round 18

Tom Chilton converted a reverse-grid pole position into a light-to-flag victory in the third and final British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Croft, ahead of Dan Cammish and team-mate Tom Ingram.

The EXCELR8 Motorsport driver had a perfect start as the lights went out, going almost the entire race distance unchallenged to take his 17th career win in the series and his first win of the season.

NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish took the chequered flag in second place, with this being his second podium of the day and placing him back into contention for the Championship.

Championship leader Ingram and Race 1 winner Colin Turkington were locked in a heated battle for the final step of the podium for a number of laps before it all came to a head at Barcroft. Whilst battling wheel-to-wheel through the Jim Clark Esses, there was contact between the pair with Turkington spinning off into the barrier.

Both drivers were able to rejoin and continue the race, with Ingram going on to take third place and his third podium of the day, whilst four-time Champion Turkington managed to limp to the finish line to take 17th.

Reigning Champion Ash Sutton took fourth place at the chequered flag, with Jake Hill quickly following in fifth place, putting on a brilliant performance after starting the race 16th on the grid.

Rob Huff of Toyota Gazoo Racing UK and Josh Cook of LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ took sixth and seventh place, with Dan Rowbottom, Adam Morgan and Ronan Pearson rounding out the top-ten and the final points-paying positions.