BTCC Thruxton: Cook claims win in reversed-grid finale

Cook started his BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R from fourth on the reversed grid, but was leading by the end of the second lap and went on to chalk up his 10th victory at the Hampshire speedbowl.

The lofty West Countryman got up to third at the start, then cut inside Colin Turkington at the flat-out Village sweeper on the opening lap to move up to second.

Poleman Stephen Jelley was out front, but Cook pulled off an excellent move on the brakes to get ahead of the West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport at the end of lap two.

Just as Dan Cammish had with Motorbase Ford team-mate Ash Sutton earlier in the day, Jelley played the team game to let team-mate Turkington in front as they headed up Woodham Hill on lap three.

But Turkington had no answer to Cook, who set fastest lap fourth time around to extend his advantage to over a second, and was two seconds in front by the end of lap eight of the 14 tours.

Cook took the chequered flag 2.682s in front, while Turkington’s second place means he has re-established himself as the sole series leader after entering the race tied on points with Sutton.

“The car was on another level,” said Cook, who was spun out by contact with Sutton in the opening race of the day.

“It was just unbelievable. I didn’t have a lot of tyre degradation, the balance was beautiful, and I got the tyres switched on quickly.”

Of the move on Jelley, he added: “To be fair to Stephen I got a really good run through Church, I just jinked out and he left a car width.”

Jelley completed a WSR BMW 2-3, but came under pressure late on from the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla of Rory Butcher, who once again made good progress on race day after struggling in qualifying.

Butcher, in turn, had Sutton looming large in his mirrors, the Ford Focus making a terrific early charge from 11th on the grid to fifth within three laps.

Tom Ingram ran fourth early on in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N, but the title contender lost out in a chicane shemozzle in which he received a shove from Dan Rowbottom’s Team Dynamics Honda.

That dropped Ingram to sixth, and he lost that position to Rowbottom when the bearded Midlander pulled off a nice move around the outside of the chicane.

Michael Crees lost a stack of places on the first lap from third on the grid, but held on for eighth in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra ahead of Gordon Shedden, who worked his Dynamics Honda past Dan Cammish’s Motorbase Ford on the final lap.

Title contender Jake Hill was run out wide onto the grass on the opening lap, and finished 12th in his WSR BMW.

BTCC Thruxton race three - 14 laps

1	Josh Cook	Honda/TOCA	18'07.311
2	Colin Turkington	BMW	18'09.993	2.682
3	Stephen Jelley	BMW	18'12.155	4.844
4	Rory Butcher	Toyota/TOCA	18'13.354	6.043
5	Ash Sutton	Ford	18'15.165	7.854
6	Dan Rowbottom	Honda	18'15.490	8.179
7	Tom Ingram	Hyundai	18'18.124	10.813
8	Michael Crees	Vauxhall/TOCA	18'18.346	11.035
9	Gordon Shedden	Honda	18'19.345	12.034
10	Dan Cammish	Ford	18'20.077	12.766
11	Dan Lloyd	Hyundai	18'21.268	13.957
12	Jake Hill	BMW	18'21.508	14.197
13	Ricky Collard	Toyota/TOCA	18'21.971	14.660
14	Ollie Jackson	Ford	18'29.063	21.752
15	Jack Butel	Hyundai	18'31.190	23.879
16	Tom Chilton	Hyundai	18'32.183	24.872
17	Ash Hand	Vauxhall/TOCA	18'35.087	27.776
18	Árón T.-Smith	Cupra/TOCA	18'36.066	28.755
19	Dexter Patterson	Infiniti/TOCA	18'38.188	30.877
20	Tom Oliphant	Cupra/TOCA	18'38.304	30.993
21	Jade Edwards	Honda/TOCA	18'38.865	31.554
22	Rick Parfitt	Infiniti/TOCA	18'56.248	48.937
23	Bobby Thompson	Cupra/TOCA	18'24.885	1 lap /17.574
(23)	Adam Morgan	BMW	17'38.947	Retirement
(25)	Jason Plato	Honda/TOCA	13'28.315	Retirement
(24)	Aiden Moffat	Infiniti/TOCA	9'33.481	Retirement
(27)	Nicolas Hamilton	Cupra/TOCA	13'40.572	Retirement
(25)	George Gamble	BMW	3'00.353	Retirement
(23)	Sam Osborne	Ford	1'30.152	Retirement