Cammish wins thrilling BTCC opener

Halfords Yuasa Racing's Dan Cammish has drawn first blood in the 2020 British Touring Car Championship season after beating defending champion Colin Turkington to the race one win at Donington Park.

Cammish started the opening race of the year from second on the grid and dropped back to third in the early stages, behind the fast starting Infiniti Q50 of Ashley Sutton, who, in turn, looked a major threat for the race win in second.

The Honda driver made his strike for the race lead on the fourth lap of the race after contact between race leader Turkington and Sutton allowed Cammish to pass the pair of them at McLeans corner.

Pressing home what looked to be a clear pace advantage over the race leading BMW, Sutton made a brave move around the outside of Turkington at Schwantz corner heading back up to McLeans. However, the brief moment of contact between the top unsettled Sutton's Laser Tools Racing Q50, which forced the 2017 champion marignally off-line and vulnerable to Cammish.

Cammish took full advantage of the heated exchange to move into the lead, while further contact between Sutton, Turkington and Tom Ingram tipped the Infiniti of Sutton into a spin and out of contention.

From then on, Cammish successfully protected his lead ahead of Turkington's BMW 330i M Sport. Although the Team Dynamics driver looked relatively comfortable ahead of the reigning champion, a lengthy safety car period mid-race gave Cammish some respite from Turkington.

Cammish eventually crossed the line 0.7s ahead of his 2019 rival Turkington, while Rory Butcher took advantage of the excitement on lap four to record his first podium finish with Motorbase Performance in the brand new Ford Focus ST.

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Ingram finished in fourth ahead of Matt Neal, who quietly went about his business to score solid points in fifth.

Team BMW's Tom Oliphant ended the opening race in sixth after falling back a couple of positions behind Ingram and Neal, following the restart of the race on lap 16.

Sam Osborne claimed his best ever finish in seventh position on his debut MB Motorsport, while Chris Smiley took a highly credible eighth on the Hyundai I30N's BTCC race debut.

Stephen Jelley and Tom Chilton completed the remainder of the top-ten order in ninth and tenth.

Following his dramatic earlier spin, Sutton confirmed the sheer raw pace of the Infiniti Q50 by fighting his way back up to 14th, setting the fastest lap of the race by almost 0.5s in the process.