DOUBLE DELIGHT AT SNETTERTON FOR NAPA RACING UK

27 May 2025

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NAPA Racing UK moved on to four wins for the year with a double success in the third meeting of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season at Snetterton.

The Alliance Racing-run squad headed the Drivers Championship going into the weekend at the longest circuit on the calendar, with Ash Sutton leading the way and both Dan Cammish and Dan Rowbottom well placed inside the top ten.

PRACTICE & QUALIFYING

The Ford Focus ST showed solid pace across free practice in mixed conditions, with Cammish setting the fourth best time and Rowbottom only missing out on the top ten by less than a tenth of a second. Sutton was just behind despite having minimal turbo boost to make use of, whilst Sam Osborne in the fourth car ended up 18th quickest.

Sutton and Cammish topped the two groups in the first stage of qualifying as Rowbottom also progressed to Q2, with Osborne ending up 16th on the grid having failed to make it into the second phase of the session.

The remaining trio made it the fight for pole, with Cammish securing his spot at the head of the field for the second time in three meetings with a fine lap that saw him end just 0.030s ahead of his closest rival. Rowbottom would head the second row of the grid, although Sutton would have to settle for sixth after electrical gremlins saw him come to a halt on track.

RACE 1

From pole for the opening race, Cammish maximised his performance in qualifying with a near faultless drive at the front of the field, managing the soft tyre and utilising his turbo boost allowance to perfection to build a slender lead that he could retain to the finish.

Sutton quickly fought his way into the podium positions and would spend the entire race trying to get ahead of Tom Ingram for second, trying his hand on the final lap before brief contact at Agostini – with Sutton backing out of the move to avoid a potential penalty and settling for third.

Rowbottom was “best of the rest” as three of the NAPA Racing cars finished inside the top four, with Osborne battling his way to a 14th place finish to nab two championship points despite electing to run the hard tyre to get it out of the way at the first opportunity.

Race 2

Cammish and Sutton were both forced to run the hard tyre in race two, with the difference in performance preventing them from battling for top honours – with Sutton slipping back to tenth by the finish despite leading early on, and Cammish only able to take 20th having been run offline onto the dirty part of the circuit on more than one occasion.

Able to run the soft tyre once again, Rowbottom quickly got to the front of the field and then put up a fine drive to fend off the challenge of his rivals behind – most notably Dan Lloyd, who briefly took the lead only for Rowbottom to fight back ahead.

In the closing stages, Rowbottom came under attack from Adam Morgan for the win, but he kept his rival at bay to score his first win of the campaign. Osborne also ran the soft tyre and showed his pace to race his way into the top ten, taking the flag in eighth spot.

Race 3

Still running in the special livery created to celebrate 100 years of NAPA, Sutton led an impressive final race for the Ford squad, jumping up to fifth on lap one and then picking off the cars ahead after an early caution period to run in second spot.

Sutton would close onto the rear of leader Mikey Doble but was unable to find a way through, and had to settle for a place on the second step of the podium. Benefitting from his strategy of running the hard tyre earlier in the day, Osborne’s progress up the order continued as he finish in a strong fifth, recovering much of the ground lost on the hard rubber as he made up 13 spots to finish in sixth.

Rowbottom, now on the hard tyre, would finish outside the points in 17th as the third best driver running that rubber.

BTCC STANDINGS

At the end of the weekend, Sutton holds a 15-point lead in the standings with Rowbottom and Cammish in fourth and fifth. NAPA Racing UK has also closed to within four points of the Manufacturers/Constructors championship lead ahead of Thruxton.

MINI CHALLENGE

The second meeting of the season for NAPA Racing’s four-strong line-up in the Vertu MINI Challenge would also prove to be successful as Jamie Osborne extended his lead in the championship standings.

Fresh from three wins at the Donington Park season opener, Osborne qualified on pole position and raced his way to victory in races two and three of the weekend, having taken third place in race one.

A 100% podium record this season means he now holds a lead of more than 60 points at the head of the standings, with Lewis Selby ending the weekend in third spot after three solid race of his own.

Selby would be in the heart of the action throughout with three top six finishes, all of which came after he had been involved in frantic battles within the midfield – a number of which included rookie team-mate Alex Solley.

Keen to bounce back from a disappointing DNF in the final race at Donington Park, Solley matched his best result to date with eighth in the opening race and was inside the top ten in all three races – although a time penalty in race two would impact on his points scored.

Cameron Richardson also picked up three solid results from his second meeting in the car, with twelfth spot in race three being his best result of the weekend.

The JCW cars will next be in action at Oulton Park late next month.