Brands Hatch BTCC: Cook defeats Proctor as Sutton extends lead

Cook, who had the slenderest of mathematical chances of the crown entering the weekend, lined up second behind the sister BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R of Senna Proctor, but demoted the Yorkshireman into Druids on the opening lap.

Carrying 39kg of success ballast on the Honda, Cook could not pull out a gap on Proctor, but was not challenged on his way to victory by 0.639 seconds.

Attentions instead turned to Gordon Shedden, who got past Team Dynamics Honda team-mate Dan Rowbottom for third into Paddock Hill Bend on the second lap.

Shedden then set fastest lap as he closed on the BTC Honda pair, before the safety car appeared due to Andy Neate – who announced his retirement from BTCC competition this morning – going off in the gravel at Druids.

The safety car appeared to take the sting out of the contest and, while Proctor couldn’t get a run on Cook, neither could Shedden on Proctor.

Dan Lloyd took advantage of Shedden’s move on Rowbottom to slip his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra into fourth place at Druids, and held position from there in a processional contest.

Sutton brought his Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50 home in sixth place ahead of Colin Turkington, while 12th place for Jake Hill and 13th for Tom Ingram mean that they, along with Cook, are now out of contention for the title, which is between Sutton and Turkington.

Turkington is now the only other driver who can deny Sutton the title

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Turkington jinked his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330i M Sport inside Aiden Moffat’s LTR Infiniti at Paddock for seventh on the opening lap, and applied pressure to Sutton early on, but the Infiniti drew away after the safety car.

Tom Chilton was ninth in his Ciceley Motorsport BMW, while Stephen Jelley’s WSR BMW followed him for most of the race.

Jelley’s car sounded off-song in the closing stages and he slid down the order, promoting a ferocious scrap between Ollie Jackson’s Motorbase-run MB Motorsport Ford Focus and Tom Oliphant’s WSR BMW.

Jackson pipped Oliphant to 10th, while Hill held off a ferocious attack from Ingram for 12th, which included a nerf at Clearways as they passed the slowing Jelley.

The result also secured BMW its sixth successive BTCC manufacturers' crown, while Laser Tools Racing wrapped up the Independent teams' title.

Brands Hatch BTCC race 1 results (17 laps):

Cla	Driver	Time	Gap
1	Josh Cook	27'24.748
2	Senna Proctor	27'25.387	0.639
3	Gordon Shedden	27'26.270	1.522
4	Daniel Lloyd	27'27.135	2.387
5	Daniel Rowbottom	27'27.769	3.021
6	Ashley Sutton	27'29.469	4.721
7	Colin Turkington	27'31.421	6.673
8	Aiden Moffat	27'32.829	8.081
9	Tom Chilton	27'34.346	9.598
10	Ollie Jackson	27'42.098	17.350
11	Tom Oliphant	27'42.286	17.538
12	Jake Hill	27'43.202	18.454
13	Tom Ingram	27'43.392	18.644
14	Adam Morgan	27'43.532	18.784
15	Chris Smiley	27'43.551	18.803
16	Rory Butcher	27'43.896	19.148
17	Jack Goff	27'44.729	19.981
18	Sam Osborne	27'46.433	21.685
19	Jason Plato	27'46.895	22.147
20	Sam Smelt	27'47.659	22.911
21	Jack Mitchell	27'49.792	25.044
22	Carl Boardley	27'55.243	30.495
23	Stephen Jelley	27'55.545	30.797
24	Rick Parfitt Jr.	27'55.723	30.975
25	Andy Wilmot	28'02.441	37.693
26	Jade Edwards	28'04.060	39.312
27	Aron Taylor-Smith	28'38.147	1'13.399
	Nicolas Hamilton	20'09.568	5 Laps
	Andy Neate	6'32.488	13 Laps
View full results