BTCC Croft: Cook wins after stunning pass on Huff

Josh Cook took victory in the second race of the British Touring Car Championship round at Croft after a stunning pass on the sister Toyota of Rob Huff.

Huff, the World Touring Car champion in 2012, and stablemate Cook started their Speedworks Motorsport-run Corolla GR Sports from seventh and eighth on the grid – the highest-placed cars on the soft Goodyear tyres, with the top six all forced to run the hard compound.

Cook flew off the road and onto the grass at the Jim Clark Esses on the opening lap, costing him ground, while Huff was up to second place by lap three.

That was thanks to a dramatic incident on the run to Tower. Race-one winner Colin Turkington had been running second, but was struggling on the hard tyre, and Ash Sutton got a run on the West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport on the run to Tower.

Just behind, Huff jinked out to the left of Sutton’s Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST. Turkington was edged onto the grass by contact with Sutton under braking, and shot across the bows of both Sutton and Huff in a scary moment, dropping to eighth.

Huff went around the outside of Sutton and set off after Ingram, whose Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback had gone around the outside of Turkington at Tower on the opening lap to take the lead.

Ingram now had no chance against the soft-tyred cars behind, and on the fifth lap he conceded the lead to Huff at Tower. Next time around Cook passed him for second at the same spot, and on the following tour Dan Rowbottom’s Alliance Ford emulated them in moving ahead of Ingram.

Cook came out on top with thrilling overtake (Photo by: JEP/Motorsport Images)

Cook’s LKQ Toyota was the faster of the Corollas up front, the West Countryman setting fastest lap as he closed in on the Toyota Gazoo Racing GB machine of Huff.

On the 13th lap of 15, Cook tried around the outside of Tower for the lead, then cut back and went around the outside into the Jim Clark Esses. Somehow he clung on and finally completed the move at the Barcroft kink.

Huff now had his hands full fending off Rowbottom, but held on in the face of the bearded Midlander’s exertions over the final lap.

“I think we really had a car to fight for the front row in qualifying, so perhaps this is what we should have had in race one,” said Cook, who was one of the leading contenders to be denied progress through the qualifying phases thanks to track-limits penalties.

“The car was mega – we’ve really found some pace since the summer break.”

Of the move on Huff, Cook added: “I ended up sliding wide there onto the grass on lap one, so I’d cleaned it all up for the move!”

Ingram did a superb job to hang onto fourth place on the hard tyres, although Sutton got close with a couple of laps remaining, while Dan Cammish followed them home in sixth in his Alliance Ford.

Turkington’s off left him bottled up behind Aron Taylor-Smith’s Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra in the fight for seventh and, with all his hybrid used up, this left him little scope to make progress.

Jake Hill was just behind in his sister WSR BMW, and the pre-weekend championship leader’s title hopes took a massive hit when contact from the Excelr8 Hyundai of Tom Chilton at Sunny Out fired him gently into the barriers, although Hill rejoined to finish 16th.

Chilton then got past Turkington to finish eighth and was drawn on reversed-grid pole, while Aiden Moffat (Speedworks Toyota) completed the top 10 after a puncture forced Adam Morgan off at Tower.

BTCC Croft race 2 result

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	J. Cook LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	21'03.148		89.78		20
2	R. Huff Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	+0.742 21'03.890	0.742	89.73		17
3	D. Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	15	+0.954 21'04.102	0.212	89.71		15
4	T. Ingram Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	15	+6.257 21'09.405	5.303	89.34		13
5	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	15	+8.115 21'11.263	1.858	89.20		11
6	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	15	+8.770 21'11.918	0.655	89.16		10
7	A. Taylor-Smith Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	15	+16.772 21'19.920	8.002	88.60		9
8	T. Chilton Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	15	+17.248 21'20.396	0.476	88.57		8
9	C. Turkington Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	15	+17.967 21'21.115	0.719	88.52		7
10	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	+18.358 21'21.506	0.391	88.49		6
11	M. Doble Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	15	+18.820 21'21.968	0.462	88.46		5
12	A. Watson Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	+23.271 21'26.419	4.451	88.15		4
13	S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	15	+23.352 21'26.500	0.081	88.15		3
14	D. De Duckhams Racing with Bartercard			Cupra León	15	+25.092 21'28.240	1.740	88.03		2
15	S. Sumpton Restart Racing			Cupra León	15	+25.374 21'28.522	0.282	88.01		1
16	J. Hill Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			BMW 330e M Sport	15	+29.948 21'33.096	4.574	87.70
17	A. Morgan Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	13	+2 Laps 21'29.182	2 Laps	76.24
dnf	N. Halstead Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	14	+1 Lap 20'29.939		86.06	Retirement
dnf	C. Smiley Restart Racing			Cupra León	12	+3 Laps 17'10.325	2 Laps	88.05	Retirement
dnf	R. Pearson Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	7	+8 Laps 13'29.358	5 Laps	65.39	Retirement
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