BTCC Thruxton: Josh Cook takes record eighth Thruxton win

The BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R racer’s triumph was a record eighth for any driver at the Hampshire speedbowl, and came after race-long pressure from the West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport of Jake Hill.

From the outside of the front row, Hill used the rear-wheel-drive traction of the BMW to nose ahead of poleman Cook, but the West Countryman swept around the outside into the Complex and took a lead he never relinquished.

Cook was over a second to the good by the end of the opening lap, but Hill came back at him and, by half-distance, the leading duo were together.

Despite grass in his radiator, Hill shadowed Cook for the rest of the race, but the leading Honda stayed firm and, on the final lap, the BMW dropped back slightly to finish 0.900 seconds adrift.

“The rear-wheel-drives get off the line really well, but we switch on the tyres faster, which allowed me to get past,” said Cook, who had a nine-lap reduction in hybrid use since he was second in the championship going into the weekend.

“I saved my hybrid for the last few laps, because I knew his tyres would last better.”

Hill, who had a seven-lap hybrid reduction, added: “I thought Josh’s fronts would go off more than mine, so I played the patient game, and then sod’s law my rears went off.”

Third place went to Ash Sutton from fifth on the grid, but it was a tough race for the Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus.

There was a tight squeeze on the opening lap at the Complex, with Colin Turkington’s second-row-starting WSR BMW getting delayed, and then Sutton’s team-mate Dan Cammish prone to an attack from the Team Dynamics Honda of Dan Rowbottom.

Ash Sutton, NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Rowbottom ran out of room into the following Noble kink and nerfed Cammish into a spin across the grass, causing the Ford driver to pit and lose a lap.

The unscathed Rowbottom set fastest lap as he closed on Sutton, who was cautious with his tyres in the early stages.

Rowbottom took a dive into Segrave exiting the Complex at half-distance, but his compromised line meant that Sutton was able to sweep back around the outside of the Honda at Noble.

Rowbottom’s compromised momentum then allowed the recovering Turkington to get his BMW in front through the flat-out Village sweeper.

Sutton held off Turkington for third, with Rowbottom and the BTC Honda of Jason Plato close at hand at the finish.

The second Dynamics Honda of Gordon Shedden was in this group for most of the race, but the Scot fell away in the late stages before the tread came off his left-front tyre to send him to the pits on the penultimate lap. 

Simultaneously, Adam Morgan moved his Ciceley Motorsport BMW ahead of Dan Lloyd’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N to grab seventh, with Stephen Jelley (WSR BMW) and Ash Hand (Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra) completing the top 10, rookie Hand moving up on the last lap when Rory Butcher’s Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla slowed.

Pre-weekend championship leader Tom Ingram was delayed by the Rowbottom/Cammish skirmish on the opening lap, took his Excelr8 Hyundai to the pits, and rejoined to finish 21st.

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time
1	Josh Cook	16	20'40.575
2	Jake Hill	16	0.900
3	Ashley Sutton	16	8.957
4	Colin Turkington	16	9.400
5	Daniel Rowbottom	16	9.816
6	Jason Plato	16	10.208
7	Adam Morgan	16	14.615
8	Daniel Lloyd	16	15.032
9	Stephen Jelley	16	15.625
10	Ash Hand	16	18.254
11	Rory Butcher	16	22.013
12	Tom Chilton	16	24.513
13	Michael Crees	16	25.387
14	George Gamble	16	26.601
15	Aiden Moffat	16	29.194
16	Ricky Collard	16	30.422
17	Bobby Thompson	16	31.232
18	Aron Taylor-Smith	16	33.917
19	Sam Osborne	16	34.540
20	Dexter Patterson	16	36.721
21	Tom Ingram	16	45.393
22	Rick Parfitt Jr.	16	57.680
23	Will Powell	16	1'04.760
24	Gordon Shedden	16	1'15.902
25	Dan Cammish	15	1 lap
26	Nicolas Hamilton	15	1 lap
	Jade Edwards	10	6 laps
	Jack Butel	7	9 laps
	Ollie Jackson	4	12 laps
View full results