Josh Cook cemented his status as the ‘King of Thruxton’ by leading from pole to the chequered flag in the Hampshire speedbowl’s British Touring Car Championship qualifying race.
Cook planted his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport firmly on pole position and, owing to no restriction on TOCA Turbo Boost due to his eighth position in the championship, the red-headed West Countryman was a clear favourite for the race.
Reigning champion Tom Ingram put his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback on the front row, despite enjoying only three seconds per lap of TTB to the 20s of Cook, but the current series runner-up had the luck of the draw – he was in decidedly the weaker of the two qualifying groups, which he topped, but was slower than the top three in the other split.
By contrast, runaway points leader Ash Sutton was in the ‘group of death’ in his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium, restricted to just 1s per lap of TTB. He set a lap time just 0.016s slower than Ingram’s, but would start seventh.
Cook got away in front, but the race was soon put under the safety car to retrieve the stranded Excelr8 Hyundai of Ricky Collard from the Complex.
At the restart, Cook gradually inched away from Ingram, and with six laps remaining had extended his leading margin to over a second. The man who had won no fewer than 10 BTCC races at Thruxton added an 11th (albeit half-points) to his haul, crossing the finish line 1.072s to the good.
“It’s what we needed,” said Cook. “I’m pleased with the amount of effort the team have put in, and I’m glad we’ve managed to get the start of a good result for them. It was a beauty to drive.
“Tom had a good go at the start – he gave me a bump and that got me going! I just had to manage the gap – the car was a bit lively and we had some moments.”
Sutton got past Mikey Doble off the startline, then leapfrogged ‘supersub’ Alliance Ford team-mate Senna Proctor plus Adam Morgan at the Complex to move into fourth.
Just over a lap after the restart, he pulled off a terrific dive on the sister Alliance Ford of Dan Cammish at Segrave to move into third.
Cammish and Proctor completed a 3-4-5 for the yellow-and-blue Focus saloons, while Gordon Shedden had his Laser Tools-liveried Speedworks Toyota on Proctor’s bumper to come home sixth.
After the race, Shedden was hit with a five-second penalty for weaving after the safety car lights went out, dropping him to eighth.
The Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon pair both benefited, with Morgan taking advantage of a grassy moment for Dan Rowbottom at Church on the 11th lap of 14 to take sixth after Shedden’s penalty.
With Tom Chilton dropping out of ninth on the penultimate lap with electrical problems on his Excelr8 Hyundai, that moved up Doble (Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon) and James Dorlin (Restart Racing Hyundai) to the final positions in the top 10.
BTCC Thruxton - Qualifying race results
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| Cla | Driver | # | Car | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  J. Cook Speedworks Corolla Racing |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 14 | 19'26.113 |
101.82 | |||||
| 2 | T. Ingram Team Vertu |
Hyundai i30N | 14 | +1.072 19'27.185 |
1.072 | 101.73 | ||||
| 3 | A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus Titanium | 14 | +1.940 19'28.053 |
0.868 | 101.65 | ||||
| 4 | D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus Titanium | 14 | +5.881 19'31.994 |
3.941 | 101.31 | ||||
| 5 | S. Proctor NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus Titanium | 14 | +7.075 19'33.188 |
1.194 | 101.21 | ||||
| 6 | G. Shedden Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 14 | +8.882 19'34.995 |
1.807 | 101.05 | ||||
| 7 | A. Morgan Cataclean Plato Racing |
Mercedes A35 Saloon | 14 | +9.772 19'35.885 |
0.890 | 100.98 | ||||
| 8 | D. Rowbottom Cataclean Plato Racing |
Mercedes A35 Saloon | 14 | +12.127 19'38.240 |
2.355 | 100.77 | ||||
| 9 | M. Doble LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | Audi A3 Saloon | 14 | +14.037 19'40.150 |
1.910 | 100.61 | ||||
| 10 | J. Dorlin Restart Racing | Hyundai i30N | 14 | +14.448 19'40.561 |
0.411 | 100.58 | ||||
| 11 |  A. Taylor-Smith Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 14 | +15.585 19'41.698 |
1.137 | 100.48 | ||||
| 12 | C. Smiley Restart Racing |
Hyundai i30N | 14 | +17.535 19'43.648 |
1.950 | 100.31 | ||||
| 13 | A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing |
Audi A3 Saloon | 14 | +18.640 19'44.753 |
1.105 | 100.22 | ||||
| 14 | D. Patterson Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing | Audi A3 Saloon | 14 | +19.347 19'45.460 |
0.707 | 100.16 | ||||
| 15 | D. De Leon West Surrey Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 14 | +21.409 19'47.522 |
2.062 | 99.99 | ||||
| 16 | L. Selby NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus Titanium | 14 | +24.533 19'50.646 |
3.124 | 99.72 | ||||
| 17 | C. Rainford West Surrey Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 13 | +1 Lap 20'16.169 |
1 Lap | 90.66 | ||||
| dnf | T. Chilton Team Vertu |
Hyundai i30N | 13 | +1 Lap 18'54.049 |
97.22 | |||||
| dnf | N. Hamilton Team Vertu | Hyundai i30N | 4 | +10 Laps 6'53.422 |
9 Laps | 82.06 | ||||
| dnf | R. Bensley Speedworks Corolla Racing | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 4 | +10 Laps 7'02.933 |
9.511 | 80.21 | ||||
| dnf | L. Gilbert West Surrey Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 4 | +10 Laps 7'35.728 |
32.795 | 74.44 | ||||
| dnf | R. Collard Team Vertu |
Hyundai i30N | 0 | |||||||
| View full results | ||||||||||
