After months of driver and team changes, the anticipation for the latest British Touring Car Championship season was higher than ever. The opening round came at Donington Park and it produced a variety of entertainment throughout the weekend, not least helped by some tricky weather conditions on race day.  

Qualifying – Dan Rowbottom, Ash Sutton, Jake Hill, Colin Turkington, Dan Cammish, Tom Ingram

The first event of the season saw a return to the Top Ten Showdown format with pole being claimed by NAPA Racing newcomer, Dan Rowbottom. One of his three teammates, Ash Sutton, joined him on the front row with Jake Hill and Colin Turkington sharing the second row. Dan Cammish lined up fifth in another NAPA Ford, where he was joined by reigning champion, Tom Ingram. 

Race One, 6.5/10 – Dan Cammish, Jake Hill, Tom Ingram

• On a damp track, Sutton had the best start, but as he moved over to cut off Rowbottom, Hill was in the gap between them and tapped the back of Sutton causing him to escape to the grass, where terminal damage was caused. The opening lap saw plenty of position changes, as well as the first safety car period of the season. 
• After a lap of racing, the safety car was once again needed to recover Nick Halstead’s car from the gravel. From Lap 8, the race was on. 
• The top three of Hill, Cammish and Ingram made a good re-start, while behind, Rowbottom was having to fend off championship newcomer, Andrew Watson, although he wasn’t successful for long. 
• The race settled down with action throughout the field, but the first major move of the season came with a few laps to go. Cammish, who had increased the pressure on Hill throughout, made his move down the Craner Curves to take the lead. Ingram managed to hold on for a podium position, despite inspired driving from Watson in his first ever BTCC race.

Race Two, 6.5/10 – Tom Chilton, Adam Morgan, Ronan Pearson*, Sam Osborne

• Chaos. The rain started to come down more heavily on the green flag lap, which resulted in lots of cars gambling on wet tyres at the end of it. 
• As the lights went out, Cammish retained the lead, but the cars on slick tyres were struggling in the conditions and it was no surprise to see a safety car before the end of the first lap to recover Ricky Collard’s damaged Toyota. After starting last, Sutton was already 10^th.
• With the rain coming down even more, the top twelve stayed out on slicks, with the rest of the field changing to wets, if they hadn’t already done so. When the racing resumed on lap 7, it was evident that the drivers on wet tyres had made the right choice as notably Tom Chilton, Adam Morgan and Ronan Pearson carved their way through the field with ease to the front. 
• Nic Hamilton ran in a career high 4^th for a while, before eventually being edged out. The top eight were running within 30 seconds of each other on lap 15, yet Turkington in 9^th was another 30 seconds down the road. 
• At the front, Chilton had a near 7-second lead, while the expected front runners battled over the last points positions, over a lap down. 

*Pearson failed a post-race ride height check and was disqualified from the result.

Race Three, 6.5/10 – Dan Cammish, Tom Ingram, Ash Sutton

• Chilton’s reward for winning the second race of the day was to pull out the reverse grid ball from the pot and he created the maximum twelve swapped positions, promoting Cammish to pole, with Rowbottom alongside him. 
• On a damp track, but with no rain in the air, Cammish made a good getaway, with Turkington initially jumping to second, before Ingram claimed the position. As with the other two races of the day, a safety car was needed at the end of the opening lap to recover the hapless Halstead, again.  
• As racing re-started on lap 5, Morgan and Osborne collided before the start-finish line and while racing initially continued, including a good battle between Rowbottom and Bobby Thompson, another safety car period was called for to recover Osborne’s car from the end of the pitlane. 
• On lap 8, the race continued with Sutton on a charge forward and Thompson slipped backwards. For some time, Ingram, in second, held up Turkington, who in turn had Sutton and Hill behind him. Despite Turkington’s best efforts, he could not find a way by and in true BTCC fashion, he became the hunted, not only losing out to Sutton, but to Hill too. 
• The battle for 2^nd allowed Cammish to scamper off into the distance, where he claimed his second victory of the day.  

It was certainly a good start to the new season with the races delivering plenty of action, despite the many safety car interludes. Incredibly, 23 of the 27 drivers have already scored points and it would have been 24, had it not been for Pearson’s ride height failure. Of course, all of this was helped by the weather conditions on Sunday at Donington Park. 

Gambling on wet weather tyres in the second race was the right call to make and those towards the back of the pack benefitted most as they had nothing to lose when making the call. It was understandable that those at the front tried to see it out, albeit to no avail.

A downside of the weather conditions was that after the opening weekend, we still don’t really know where teams are in terms of raw pace, as the conditions clearly effected the races and strategies, with quite a few drivers out of their expected places. However, it would already seem foolish to bet against a NAPA Racing driver seriously challenging for the championship, if not winning it. 

In both the wet and dry of Saturday, NAPA had cars at the front and although Cammish certainly had the luck of the reverse grid pole, he was never going to turn down the opportunity of a second race win of the day. 2021 champion, Sutton, didn’t have the best of race days, despite a promising starting position for the opening race. However, all drivers will experience their fair share of bad luck throughout the season and he will no doubt come to the fore soon. 

Although the hybrid rules have been tweaked for this season, it was hard to evaluate their impact over just one, weather interrupted meeting. Going forward, it will be interesting to see how the new rules work because last season the races became somewhat processional, with many drivers winning the opening two races. We have to hope the tweaks work, as 2022 wasn’t the greatest of seasons for race action. 

At Donington, it was wonderful to see the new drivers to the championship immediately being involved in the action. Most notably, Andrew Watson was outstanding in the PMR Astra, a car which you would have thought would have had its day by now. In addition, congratulations to Nicolas Hamilton for his first top six finish; an incredible achievement. 

The BTCC visits Brands Hatch Indy next and it will be interesting to see whether the front runners from Donington continue their form or whether new teams and drivers will spoil their fun. 

BTCC 2023 Championship Standings:

1.	Dan Cammish	48 points
2.	Tom Ingram	40
3.	Jake Hill	32
4.	Tom Chilton	30
5.	Adam Morgan	26
6.	Colin Turkington	23