2024 BTCC Donington Park Grand Prix | 7 talking points

Cook takes first Toyota pole; Turkington’s Saturday form continues

Heading into qualifying, Team BMW’s Colin Turkington was bidding for his third consecutive pole position. However, the Toyota Corolla of Josh Cook had other ideas. It was a close call as Cook beat the four-time champion to the top spot by less than a tenth of a second, just 0.071 ahead of the 3-Series.

Also enjoying a strong turn of form in recent meetings has been the Power Maxed Racing squad, with Mikey Doble securing an impressive third behind Cook and Turkington. His more experienced team-mate Aron Taylor-Smith would start from sixth, making the Vauxhall outfit the only team to get two drivers into the second part of qualifying.

Title challengers Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram completed the top six in fourth and fifth respectively. Jake Hill, meanwhile, narrowly missed out on making Q3, facing a weekend battling the aftermath of a nasty bout of food poisoning.

Turkington cruises to third consecutive race one win

Although Turkington may have failed to get three pole positions on the bounce, he was determined to secure yet another victory in the opening race of the day. Utilising the superior launch of the rear-wheel-drive BMW, Turkington leapt ahead of Cook’s Vauxhall, able to cut ahead of the pole sitter before turning in for the first corner of Redgate. The BMW driver was in complete control from then on and eased to yet another race one victory.

Meanwhile, Ash Sutton worked his way up into second with Jake Hill (still fighting off food poisoning) managing to also fight his way up onto the final step of the podium. Championship hopeful Tom Ingram’s lack of luck seemed to continue when Mikey Doble outbraked himself straight into the rear corner of Ingram’s Hyundai. The 2022 champion would drop from challenging for the top five down to 12^th.

Ingram’s recovery drive would have begun in earnest there and then, but was delayed as Andrew Watson’s Toyota was jettisoned into the tyre stacks at the Grand Prix loop chicane. Despite only having a single lap of hybrid power at his fingertips, Ingram was able to work his way back up to fifth at the finish line, saving vital championship points in the process.

Sutton finally gets back on the top step as Ingram falters

This time last year, Ash Sutton was notching up his ninth race win of the year as his fourth title seemed all but confirmed (which of course he would go on to win at Brands Hatch). Fast forward to 2024 however, and the NAPA Racing UK driver was sitting on just a single victory in his striking blue Ford Focus.  

With a greasy track underneath them as they took to the grid (although only Nick Halstead – incorrectly – opted to run the wet weather tyre) Sutton was clear before the race that that he was going to take it to the BMWs on the first lap. The plan worked and, despite the expected strong launch from pole sitter Turkington, the Ford stormed around the outside through Starkeys Bridge and into Schwantz curve.

Looking to make amends from his race one difficulties, Tom Ingram was on a mission in his hunting of the reigning champion. Using his hybrid boost to perfection, the Hyundai driver eased past Turkington’s BMW on the run down to the Melbourne Loop on lap five, but the extra power would see him nudge the rear of the leading Ford. What looked like an innocuous impact would turn out to be pivotal, as six laps later, the i30 was dropping through the field like a stone with a rapidly overheating engine.

Making matters worse for the Team Bristol Street Motors team leader was that his title rivals occupied the podium places, with Sutton leading home Turkington and Jake Hill, who’s uncomfortable weekend continued to provide the ultimate medicine in silverware.

Cammish breaks 2024 duck; Ingram fights back; Sutton slips up  

Dan Cammish has arguably had one of the most frustrating periods of his career since joining the NAPA Racing UK squad, constantly showing pace but never quite getting the rub of the green to consistently finish at the sharp end. Donington Park was looking to be par for the course for the Yorkshireman, being spun out as a result of someone else’s incident at the start of race two.

Finishing 11^th in the second encounter, Cammish would start race three from reverse grid pole after his team-mate drew the number 11 ball from the pot, which would also put another NAPA Ford – Sam Osborne – second on the grid. Looking like a dream start for the Alliance Racing run squad, it turned to a nightmare before the end of the first lap as Ash Sutton got caught up in the typical race three madness and crabbed his way back into the pits.

With Sutton out of the picture, there was a golden opportunity for his rivals to capitalise, and if anyone needed it, it was Tom Ingram. Starting from 19^th after his mechanical dramas a couple of hours earlier, Ingram drove like a man possessed. Finding himself in seventh after the first five laps, his charge was halted for a swift one lap safety car to clean up debris around the circuit. Undeterred by a brace of appearances from the Porsche Panamera GTS safety car, Ingram worked his way up to second by the chequered flag – visibly emotional in his post-race interview.

Rain began to pour during the second safety car, resulting in a seven lap sprint on slick tyres to decide the final result of the day. Tom Chilton – who famously won the weather impacted race at the 2023 season opener – and Nick Halstead opted to change to wets, but the conditions didn’t change enough to be a significant factor. Dan Cammish once again stormed away to a well-earned victory, leading home Tom Ingram and the Vauxhall Astra of Aron Taylor-Smith, earning the Power Maxed Racing outfit its first overall podium since its double at Croft.

As for the other title protagonists; Jake Hill rounded out a solid if unspectacular weekend with a fifth, and Colin Turkington recovered from a spin (an assisted one at that) at the Melbourne Loop to finish seventh.

Tyre stacks cause yet more damage

It’s beginning to make Tim Harvey sound like a broken record, but his rants are more than justified as yet another hefty amount of damage and delay was caused by tyre stacks being placed at the apex of a chicane. This time it was the Toyota Corolla of Andrew Watson who was on the receiving end of the impact, being skittled off in race one directly into the tyres left as a corner cutting deterrent.

The impact launched the Toyota onto two wheels, and the damage caused was more than significant (although a portion of that damage came from being dragged through the gravel rather than lifted). Unfortunately, the delay caused by the accident was doubled as the marshals then had to go about placing the tyres back in their designated position.

Now, track limits is a very boring subject in modern motorsport, and of course measures need to be put in place to try and kerb (pun intended) the number of transgressions. Plonking a lump of tyres in the way seems to be the current go-to option, at least in BTCC circles. Is it working? Well, sort of – but the delays and damage (not to mention the costs for the teams’ repair jobs) are growing and growing. Yes, we want good racing within the white lines, but we don’t want unnecessarily damaged cars and lengthy safety car delays for clean-up purposes, so it’s hard not to agree with Tim Harvey’s growing frustration. The only problem is, what do you do instead?

Zelos impresses on debut

The BTCC grid had a swift shakeup on the run into the Donington Park weekend as Ronan Pearson and Team Bristol Street Motors “amicably” parted company. The Scot was replaced immediately by Dan Zelos, who wrapped up his third MINI Challenge crown in four seasons at Knockhill.

Jumping into the Hyundai, Zelos impressed from the off. Qualifying in 16^th, he worked his way up through the field to finish 12^th in race one, earning points in his very first BTCC outing. Two further top 15 finishes – 13^th and 11^th – were enough to earn 12 championship points, instantly jumping ahead of Nick Halstead and just five behind Scott Sumpton in his three races compared to their 24.

Hill takes lead despite illness

Clearly not running at 100% after a bout of food poisoning on the eve of the race weekend, Jake Hill knew that it was going to be a difficult weekend before a wheel had even been turned. Three solid results were exactly what the doctor would have ordered. The BMW driver entered the weekend second in points, but left with a nine-point lead at the head of the table with six races to go.

While Hill racked up three consistent results, the dramas for Ingram, Sutton and Turkington means the trio now sit nine, 20 and 43 points back respectively. Dan Cammish’s race three win sees him just three points back from Turkington and firmly in the top five. Josh Cook sits sixth and is the last driver with a somewhat realistic shot at the title, sitting 54 points off Hill with 134 still on the table. Aron Taylor-Smith, who occupies seventh, lies exactly 134 points back from Hill, so the reality is that the Independent crown is all he can aim for now.

It was a mixed weekend for the NAPA Racing UK squad in terms of the Teams’ and Constructors’ standings. It now holds a 104-point margin over Team Bristol Street Motors in the former, but BMW has closed right up in the Constructors’ title race, with just four points separating the Blue Oval from the chasing Bavarians.

Aron Taylor-Smith extended his lead over team-mate Mikey Doble in the Independent Drivers’ standings to 59 points following a trio of victories, while the team now holds a 74-point gap to Restart Racing. Doble also took a pair of Jack Sears Trophy wins, losing out only to Sam Osborne in race one, meaning his lead now sits at 93 points and has a very strong chance to wrap up the victory at Silverstone in four weeks’ time.

Yes, that’s right – four weeks. The teams now get a small break before the final two rounds of the year, as the championship reconvenes at the home of the British Grand Prix over the weekend of the 21^st and 22^nd September.