BTCC Croft: Cook wins wet-weather thriller from Sutton

Josh Cook took victory in the first British Touring Car Championship race at Croft after surviving a last-corner attack from Ash Sutton, despite not crossing the finish line in front.

Tom Ingram was first past the chequered flag but, in the wake of a crackdown on track-limits offences, he had been given a five-second penalty, which relegated him to third in the results.

The race began on a wet track amid continuing drizzle, with Cook on pole in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport following his win in Saturday’s qualifying race.

Cook immediately opened an advantage over the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titaniums of Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton, once the fast-starting Daryl De Leon had autocrossed his way out of the leading bunch thanks to a nerf from behind at the chicane on the opening lap.

Ingram, meanwhile, was making up ground on the leading trio in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback. As the drizzle began to abate, the reigning champion tried numerous times to pass Sutton, with the leading quartet running in close formation.

Eventually, the rat-a-tat-tatting from Ingram on Sutton put the Focus’s tracking out of alignment, and the runaway championship leader went skating wide onto the grass at Sunny In on the 12th lap of 15, promoting Ingram to third.

Half a lap later, Ingram got down the inside of Cammish – who by now was out of TOCA Turbo Boost – at Hawthorns to take second. But, with the rain returning in greater intensity, notification came that both Ingram and Cammish had been hit with five-second penalties for track-limits offences.

Ingram immediately speared down the inside of Cook at the hairpin at the end of the 13th lap, and set about trying to build a gap over the remaining two tours to wipe out the penalty – to no avail.

Cammish, meanwhile, did not make life difficult for Sutton on the final lap as his team-mate sailed past on the back straight, and the four-time champion hauled in Cook prior to the final-corner nudge. “It was a nice little bump to help me turn the car!” quipped the race winner.

“Nobody wants to be the first on the scene when it suddenly goes to a damp track,” continued Cook. “It was nice to be able to settle into a rhythm, and I could see it all kicking off behind, and soon got told there were a bunch of penalties.

“I knew that if I could keep it on track, not abuse track limits, that it would be an easier race. As soon as I saw Tom put his nose up inside at the hairpin, I thought, ‘There you go.’ There was no way he was going to pull out five seconds in the remaining laps.”

Such was the advantage the leading quartet held over the rest of the field that Cammish’s 5s penalty did not affect his result – and, should it dry out, he will be able to use the soft tyres in race two whereas Cook, Sutton and Ingram will all be forced to run the hard Goodyears.

Ricky Collard was the best of the rest in fifth with his Excelr8 Hyundai, shadowed throughout by the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sports of Charles Rainford and De Leon, with De Leon grabbing sixth from his team-mate with four laps remaining.

Aiden Moffat claimed eighth in his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon ahead of Dan Lloyd (Restart Racing Hyundai) and Dan Rowbottom (CPRL Mercedes A35 Saloon), but Lloyd was another hit with a 5s track-limits penalty, promoting Rowbottom to ninth and Mikey Doble (PMR Audi) to 10th. Moffat also shifted positions in the results – in his place upwards to seventh when Rainford was penalised one place for his robust move on the Scot.

Rowbottom was the best-placed of the eight drivers who went to the grid on hard tyres – in order to get rid of them for the day. All but Chris Smiley pitted at the end of the formation lap, by which time they were under starter’s orders, to have wet-weather rubber fitted.

BTCC Croft - Race 1 results

RACE1

All Stats

Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	J. Cook Speedworks Corolla Racing			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	23'05.853				20
2	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	15	+0.377 23'06.230	0.377			17
3	T. Ingram Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	15	+2.416 23'08.269	2.039			15
4	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	15	+6.711 23'12.564	4.295			13
5	R. Collard Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	15	+15.164 23'21.017	8.453			11
6	D. De Leon West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	15	+16.705 23'22.558	1.541			10
7	C. Rainford West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	15	+18.509 23'24.362	1.804			9
8	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	15	+26.558 23'32.411	8.049			8
9	D. Rowbottom Cataclean Plato Racing			Mercedes A35 Saloon	15	+29.202 23'35.055	2.644			7
10	M. Doble LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	15	+29.461 23'35.314	0.259			6
11	L. Gilbert West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	15	+29.815 23'35.668	0.354			5
12	T. Chilton Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	15	+30.506 23'36.359	0.691			4
13	D. Lloyd Restart Racing			Hyundai i30N	15	+32.919 23'38.772	2.413			3
14	G. Shedden Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	+38.616 23'44.469	5.697			2
15	S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	15	+39.732 23'45.585	1.116			1
16	A. Morgan Cataclean Plato Racing			Mercedes A35 Saloon	15	+39.838 23'45.691	0.106
17	A. Taylor-Smith Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	+49.016 23'54.869	9.178
18	L. Selby NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	15	+50.614 23'56.467	1.598
19	D. Patterson Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	15	+54.243 24'00.096	3.629
20	R. Bensley Speedworks Corolla Racing			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	+1'02.400 24'08.253	8.157
21	N. Hamilton Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	15	+1'20.023 24'25.876	17.623
22	C. Smiley Restart Racing			Hyundai i30N	14
dnf	N. Halstead Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	10				Retirement
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