With NAPA celebrating its 100-year anniversary, the team headed into the weekend topping the driver’s and team’s standings with Ash Sutton after his double victory in the Donington Park season opener.

To commemorate NAPA’s 100-years, Ash’s team ran a black and yellow livery of the original NAPA colours.

PRACTICE & QUALIFYING

After two busy practice sessions on Saturday morning, the NAPA Racing UK quartet headed into qualifying in a confident mood, but it would be a tough session for championship leader Sutton, who failed to make it through from his group in Q1 by just 0.054s.

Dan Rowbottom missed out by an even smaller margin in the other group – 0.012s – to leave the pair 13th and 14th on the grid for the opening race.

Q2 saw Sam Osborne knocked out as he ended up seventh on the grid, which marked a new personal best qualifying performance, with Dan Cammish flying the flag into the Quick Six battle for pole before securing fifth on the grid.

RACE 1

Running the soft compound tyre in the opening race, Cammish saw off the early challenge of Mikey Doble to kick off the weekend with a sold fifth-place finish, whilst Osborne ran strongly in the top ten throughout, although he would be shuffled back to eighth late on in a frenetic midfield battle.

Given their positions outside the top ten, both Sutton and Rowbottom elected to run the less favoured hard tyre at the first opportunity, with Sutton battling his way to tenth at the finish and Rowbottom taking 18th, having lost out to softer-shod cars behind.

Race 2

With the top three forced onto the hard tyre for race two, Cammish was well placed to fight forwards from the third row and wasted little time in making up progress as he climbed to second in the early laps.

Unfortunately, a technical gremlin ahead of the restart after an early safety car period saw his car come to a halt on the circuit before he was hit from behind, damaging the suspension and putting him into retirement.

Instead, it was Sutton who lead the NAPA Racing UK challenge as he made the most of the soft tyre and the extra turbo boost now available to romp his way through to third spot and grab a podium finish – ensuring silverware on a weekend when he was running a special livery on his car to celebrate NAPA’s 100th birthday. The result also saw Ash reach a landmark 100th podium in the BTCC, an incredible achievement.

Osborne ran strongly to cross the line in eleventh spot before dropping down to 17th as a result of a five-second penalty for a false start, with Rowbottom showing his pace on the soft tyre as he worked his way through into ninth.

Race 3

Drawn on pole for race three, Rowbottom did well to fend off two fast-starting BMWs at the start and held the lead through the first lap before a forceful move from Charles Rainford on lap two demoted him down to second.

Rowbottom would slip down the order as the race progressed to end up ninth, with Sutton instead topping the NAPA Racing challenge once again as he battled his way to fourth spot thanks to a late move on the Hyundai of Chris Smiley.

Both Osborne and Cammish were left to run the hard tyre in the final race, which hampered their chances of making up ground from their respective starting positions.

Despite that, Cammish rose through the pack from 23rd place to finish 14th as the third best driver on hard rubber, with Osborne missing out on the points his weekend pace deserved in 18th.

The post NAPA RACING UK RETAINS TOP SPOT AT BRANDS HATCH appeared first on Alliance Racing.

The Alliance Racing-run outfit was bidding to retain its position at the head of the Teams’ Championship standings on a weekend where it adopted a fresh look both on and off track to raise funds and awareness for Race Against Dementia – the charity founded by multiple F1 champion Sir Jackie Stewart.

PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING

On the circuit, the weekend started well as Dan Rowbottom topped the times in mixed conditions in the opening practice session, and the pace of the Ford Focus ST was further evident in a dry FP2, where Rowbottom again led the way with Ash Sutton making it a NAPA Racing 1-2 at the front.

Come qualifying, Sam Osborne just missed out on progressing to Q2 alongside Rowbottom, Sutton and Dan Cammish although only Rowbottom would then make it into the Quick Six after a frenetic ten minutes of track action.

Cammish would miss out by just a tenth of a second to line up eighth, with Sutton in twelfth, with Rowbottom ultimately securing a place on the second row of the grid with the fourth best time in Q3.

RACE 1

Rowbottom was the only one of the four to take the harder tyre option for race one as he bolted on a set of medium rubber, taking a different strategy to his three team-mates who all went with the soft tyre.

Despite being on the slower tyre, Rowbottom was able to take the flag in seventh place as the second best medium-shod runner, just behind Sutton who displayed impressive race pace to work his way through to six – taking the spot from his team-mate on the final lap.

Cammish would be involved in the midfield scraps as he crossed the line in ninth spot, with Osborne making the most of his tyre choice to climb six spots into the points in twelfth.

RACE 2

Rowbottom’s gamble of running the slower tyre first then worked in his favour in race two as he was able to charge his way through the pack to take the flag in second spot. The fact finished as runner-up came despite a five second penalty for being out of position at the start, further indicating his pace as he scored a first podium of the year.

Forced onto the medium tyre, Sutton and Cammish were both able to improve on their race one results as they took the flag in fifth and seventh, with Osborne sticking with the soft rubber and finishing in 15th – losing ground when he was run wide through turn three whilst part of a huge battle for position.

RACE 3

The final race of the weekend saw the top twelve on the grid reversed, but Cammish was unable to benefit from starting on the third row when he was forced off across the grass at Clarks in the early stages – dropping him down to 16th place.

He battled back well to take the flag in eighth place, which was two spots behind Rowbottom as he again showed his pace to come through from eleventh on the grid to take his second top six finish of the weekend.

Sutton maintained his record of improving his position in each race with fourth – just missing out on the podium – whilst Osborne was forced onto the slower medium tyre and had to contend with a mid-race pitstop, but still scored points in 15th to wrap up the weekend win in the Jack Sears Trophy.

BTCC STANDINGS

At the end of the weekend, Sutton remains third in the Drivers’ Championship with Cammish and Rowbottom in fourth and eighth, whilst Osborne won the Jack Sears Trophy for the weekend and currently sits third in the Jack Sears.

NAPA Racing UK meanwhile continues to head the Teams’ Championship.

MINI CHALLENGE

The penultimate weekend of action in the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE proved to be a positive one for Jamie Osborne, Lewis Selby and Cameron Richardson, who all picked up silverware from the weekend.

JCW CLASS

A strong performance from Osborne saw him finish all three races inside the top three on the road, although an unfortunate penalty in the second race for gaining an unfair advantage whilst working his way up the order dropped him back to fifth. Osborne is now just three points away from second in the battle to finish the season as runner-up.

The main beneficiary however was Selby as he moved up into third spot, with the points he secured being enough to confirm him as the winner of the Directors Cup with a round still to run.

JCW SPORT CLASS

Richardson picked up a strong haul of points as he secured a hat-trick of podium finishes, which leaves him second in the standards going into the final round – 39 points off top spot.

MINI CHALLENGE STANDINGS

Osborne leaves third in the standings, with Selby in sixth and Cam leaves still sitting second in the JCW Sport class standings.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO JOINED THE TEAM IN THE RACE AGAINST DEMENTIA.

Our highlights video and the total money raised will be announced soon.

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The test at Donington Park, which will play host to the opening three races of the season next weekend, was the third and final official test of the winter and saw all 20 cars currently featured on the entry list take to the track.

Keen to further refine the title-winning Ford Focus ST after a number of upgrades were introduced during the winter, the Alliance Racing-run squad topped the times at the East Midlands circuit with reigning champion Ash Sutton, who was able to set the only sub 1:08s lap of the day.

That came during limited running in the afternoon before the arrival of rain, with Sutton edging team-mate Dan Cammish out of top spot and Dan Rowbottom also lapping inside the top five.

Sam Osborne meanwhile was 15th on the combined times, and third quickest of those driver who are eligible to battle for the Jack Sears Trophy.

Pre-season running had kicked off in early April with a day of running at Brands Hatch, which had been the home circuit for the NAPA Racing UK team before it relocated to new premises in the Midlands.

A hugely productive day on track saw the four drivers complete more than 500 laps of the short Indy circuit and whilst the focus was on development work rather than chasing outright lap times, both Sutton and Cammish were little over three-tenths of a second off the pace.

The Focus would also show strong pace at Croft during the second test, where mixed weather conditions once again played a part – although Cammish, Sutton and Rowbottom all lapped inside the top six.

“We have made great use of the wet weather to really refine our wet setup and some of the findings have filtered down into the dry setups too. We’ve had a pretty well structured testing plan building our knowledge and understanding of the Focus, which allows us to dial a car in quicker on race weekends with limited practice before qualifying! As a summary I think we’ve taken a small step forwards this year and it’ll be interesting to see how we measure up against the competition at round 1 in just over a week!” Antonio Carrozza, Chief Engineer. 

NEXT STOP

With plenty of mileage under their belts, the four drivers now return to Donington Park on the 27/28 April for rounds one, two and three of the season looking to replicate the results seen twelve months ago, where Rowbottom scored pole and Cammish went on to secure a double win.

KEEP UP TO SPEED

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DRESS LIKE CHAMPIONS

The post NAPA READY AFTER PRODUCTIVE TESTING appeared first on Alliance Racing.

A stunning season on track for NAPA Racing UK ended on the highest of highs after the team successfully wrapped up no fewer than three Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship titles on Finals Day at Brands Hatch.

Ash Sutton became only the third driver in series history to secure the Drivers’ Championship for a fourth time and the first driver to claim the title in both rear-wheel and front-drive machinery. Whilst the Alliance Racing-run team ended BMW’s seven-year stint on top of the Manufacturers’ / Constructors’ standings.

That marked the first time a Ford team had secured the title since 2000, with NAPA Racing UK also lifting the Teams’ Trophy for the second successive season.

QUALIFYING

Sutton went into the weekend with a 45-point lead over 2022 champion Tom Ingram and extended his lead at the top in Saturday’s qualifying session; making light of a lack of hybrid power to grab the bonus point on offer for pole position.

That was Sutton’s sixth pole of the year – equalling the modern-day record – and gave NAPA Racing UK a remarkable nine pole positions from ten sessions. It also confirmed Sutton as the winner of the Goodyear Wingfoot Award as top qualifier.

RACE 1, 2 AND 3

Aware that he only needed to finish ahead of Ingram in Race one to wrap up the title, Sutton held his lead at the start and was never at serious risk of being overhauled as he scored win number eleven of the season – securing an unassailable lead in the standings in the process.

Win number twelve – equalling the record set by Alain Menu in the Super Touring era of the 1990s – quickly followed in Race two as Sutton once again led from start-to-finish and despite being forced into an unscheduled pitstop in Race three to have debris removed from the front of his Ford Focus, rounded out his season with 13th place.

Ending the season on 446 points, 46 clear of Ingram, Sutton clinched another record by beating the previous best posted by Colin Turkington, whilst he set a new best for laps led having been out front for 174 laps across the campaign.

Alongside Sutton, there was a welcome return to form for Dan Cammish after a tough run of results had seen him fail to score in the previous six races. Cammish would pick up three top ten finishes, and made the most of running the soft compound tyre in Race two to make a return to the podium places for the first time since Croft; cementing his position in the top six in the championship standings in the process.

Three solid top-ten finishes for Daniel Rowbottom allowed him to wrap up seventh in the standings, although he was left to rue a bad start in the final race of the campaign when on the front row of the grid that saw him slip back down the order. Despite that, he scored his best result of the weekend in P5 to complete a hat-trick of top eight finishes.

A tricky finale for Sam Osborne saw his chances of securing the Jack Sears Trophy (JST) ended in the second race of the weekend when contact from the Cupra of James Gornall saw him go off heavily into the barriers at Paddock Hill Bend.

Fantastic work from the NAPA Racing UK squad enabled him to get back out for the final race, where he came from the rear of the field to cross the line in 17th place.

It means he ends the season fourth in the JST standings.

MINI CHALLENGE JCW

The focus for the final meeting of the Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE JCW season was firmly on the fight for the Graduate Cup, with Jamie Osborne taking a slender lead over rival Dominic Wheatley into the final weekend.

Osborne was left with work to do after qualifying behind his rival for the opening race but strong race pace enabled him to not only close onto the rear of Wheatley by the end of lap one, but then fight ahead to extend his advantage in the points.

His advantage was increased when Wheatley was forced to retire from Race two, meaning Jamie only needed to finish the final race of the season to secure the class title.

It looked like there could be late heartache when Osborne damaged the splitter on the car and was forced to pit by officials, but the team was able to patch up the #77 machine so he could return to the track – cruising round at the back of the field to secure the points needed to lift the Graduate Cup crown.

Team-mate Lewis Selby meanwhile ended his season with three solid points finishes, the highlight coming in Race three as he battled his way ahead of Simon Reed in the closing stages to score a third Directors Cup victory of the season.

That helped to cement second in the Directors Cup standings in his rookie season.

Porsche Carrera Cup GB

Fresh from victory at Silverstone, Gus Burton was keen to end his season in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB on a high and put his JTR-run car seventh on the grid in a tight qualifying session that saw the top 19 drivers covered by less than a second.

Jumping up into fourth at the start, Gus was one of a number of drivers to slide off on fluid dropped on the circuit on the second lap and dropped down the order before an unfortunate clash with Jake Giddings as he attempted to make his way back through the pack resulting in him being forced into retirement.

Forced to start back in P11 for Race two as a result, Burton fought his way through to take seventh overall – sixth in the Pro class – on the final lap.

It means Burton ends the year seventh in the points, a notable result considering that he only contested five of the eight meetings due to his commitments elsewhere.

2023 SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

As the BTCC season draws to a close, it has been a record-breaking year for NAPA Racing UK. Some of the highlights include:

• 16 wins
• 32 podiums
• 9 out of 10 poles
• 14 fastest laps
• Ash broke the record for the number of laps led (174 across the season)

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