BTCC: Cook takes pole at Thruxton in return after break

Josh Cook claims pole position in qualifying for the Thruxton BTCC weekend in first weekend back after seven-week break.

Group One saw Cook set the fastest time in the first runs ahead of Adam Morgan and Dan Cammish with him looking to get his season back on track after a difficult first four race weekends. He would be challenged by the Plato Racing car of Morgan who put pressure on Cook’s time later in the session before a couple of yellow flags would have to be thrown in the latter parts of the session.

Cook would maintain the fastest time with a 1:15.219 while Cammish made a late run for second place snatching it away from Morgan. Championship leader Ash Sutton would set the fourth fastest time, less than half a second behind Cook, despite having very little in the way of TOCA Turbo Boost.

Group Two would get underway with early times set from reigning champion Tom Ingram and Senna Proctor, who steps in this weekend to cover for Sam Osborne, as the pair chase Cook’s Group One time. Ingram would remain fastest through the rest of the session ahead of Proctor and Mikey Doble but no one would match Cook’s time from Group One giving the Toyota first position for the ‘Race To Pole’.

Cook would lead the way contesting the lead with Ingram into the braking zone maintaining the lead while Ingram had to deal with the NAPA cars behind him.  However, the race would have to be put under Safety Car after Ricky Collards car would run into an issue.

The race would get back underway with Cook keeping his lead ahead of Ingram and Cammish while Sutton would trail behind. Proctor would have to defend from Morgan in the restart phases losing the place to the Mercedes. Up front, Cammish would try and take second into the chicane from Ingram but to no avail before having to fight teammate Sutton for third as they entered lap five. Sutton would get a better exit through Cobb to take the inside line through the following corner to take third place away from his teammate.

Adam Morgan would unfortunately end up on the grass on the exit of their first corner dropping him behind Proctor and Gordon Shedden on lap six while the back end of the top ten would squabble over position for race one on Sunday.

Cook would start to slowly extend his gap to Ingram as he looked to maintain a margin over the Hyundai and the chasing pack and would go on to take victory in the Qualifying Race and pole position for race one on Sunday. Ingram would finish second ahead of Sutton and Cammish while Proctor completed the top five.

Shedden would finish the best of the Independent Drivers in sixth ahead of Morgan and Dan Rowbottom while Doble and James Dorlin would complete the top ten.