Cook dominates Thruxton BTCC qualifying
Speedworks Corolla Racing's Josh Cook dominated the Race to Pole for the first of three British Touring Car Championship rounds at Thruxton this weekend, leading home Tom Ingram by 1.072s.
Thruxton has been a happy hunting ground for Cook in the past with 11 wins in championship rounds there across the prior eight seasons. This time around he topped the timed session to set the grid order for the qualifying race, before leading every lap and taking the fastest lap to boot.
Ingram applied pressure on Cook on the opening lap, getting a good getaway and coming close to making a move at the Complex, but his charge was quickly neutralized when his Team Vertu teammate Ricky Collard stopped after the first turn, bringing out the safety car.
On the lap 4 restart, Cook kept the field backed up right until the last second – which caused trouble towards the back of the pack with Charles Rainford, Ryan Bensley, Nicolas Hamilton and Lewis Gilbert all being caught up in collisions towards the back. Cook, nevertheless, maintained his advantage out in front, while Ingram was given breathing room as Ash Sutton began to apply the pressure on his NAPA Racing UK teammate Dan Cammish for third, eventually getting by at the start of lap 5.
Behind them, Cataclean Plato Racing's Adam Morgan was relegated from fifth to seventh on lap 6 onto the grass at Turn 1, allowing Senna Proctor – subbing for an unwell Sam Osborne at NAPA Racing UK – and Gordon Shedden to pass.
Morgan quickly recovered to hound Shedden on the following lap, but a look round the outside going into the final chicane allowed his teammate Dan Rowbottom to pass. The move was short-lived, however, with Morgan looking up the inside at Church on lap 11. Rowbotton, already losing the position, then ran wide.
The Mercedes pair eventually finished seventh and eighth, behind Shedden, Proctor, and the top four of Cook, Ingram, Sutton, and Cammish, with Power Maxed Racing's Mikey Doble and Restart Racing's James Dorlin completing the top 10.
For Cook, it's his first pole from a qualifying result (not counting a Race 2 grid based on Race 1 results or a reverse grid in Race 3) since Donington Park GP in 2024 when he was also driving a Speedworks Toyota Corolla, albeit for a satellite entry.
It also marks the first time a Toyota Corolla has won a Race to Pole since the format was introduced at the start of this year. While it's the second time one has won one on the road after Aron-Taylor-Smith crossed the line third in the Saturday race at Oulton park before the race, he lost the result due to a penalty.
All three of this Sunday's races will be live on RACER+. See this weekend's Racing on TV page for air times.
Dominik Wilde
Dominik often jokes that he was born in the wrong country – a lover of NASCAR and IndyCar, he covered both in a past life as a junior at Autosport in the UK, but he’s spent most of his career to date covering the sliding and flying antics of the U.S.’ interpretation of rallycross. Rather fitting for a man that says he likes “seeing cars do what they’re not supposed to do”, previously worked for a car stunt show, and once even rolled a rally car with Travis Pastrana. He was also comprehensively beaten in a kart race by Sebastien Loeb once, but who hasn’t been?
Read Dominik Wilde's articles
Latest News
Comments
Comments are disabled until you accept Social Networking Cookies. Update cookie preferences
If the dialog doesn't appear, ad-blockers are often the cause; try disabling yours or see our Social Features Support.
