BTCC Thruxton: Cook fastest from BTC Honda team-mate Plato in practice

In the cool conditions of the opening session, the West Countryman whisked his BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R around the UK’s fastest circuit 0.111 seconds quicker than the best anyone else could manage.

Second fastest the sister BTC Honda of veteran two-time champion Jason Plato, who appears in his strongest position to date this season to edge closer to the magical 100-wins mark from his current tally of 97.

Conditions warmed up slightly for the second session, in which the quickest contender was the West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport of Jake Hill, although the bearded Kentishman couldn’t quite match his earlier-session best, which put him third fastest overall.

Cook was third in the later period behind the Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus of Ash Sutton.

“The car feels really nice,” Cook told Autosport after emerging from the Honda following the second session.

“It’s always a lot better when you come out of the box well, and we’re slowly getting small improvements – I’m hanging on but it’s a real pleasure to drive, the circuit’s in great condition, and at the moment it’s all going to plan.

“Everyone will go faster when it counts in qualifying, and if we get in the top five that’s good [because he’s second in the championship, Cook is allowed just 1.5 seconds of hybrid use per lap].”

Hill set two laps quicker than the best anyone else could manage in the second session, in which he beat Sutton by 0.174s – Sutton returned to the pits with grass in his radiator on a subsequent effort, but his performance was good for fourth overall.

Jake Hill, ROKiT MB Motorsport BMW 330e M Sport (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

A trio of Dans were next up, with Rowbottom’s second-session time in his Team Dynamics Honda putting him fifth overall after a tidy lap, followed by late improver Lloyd’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N and the second of the NAPA-liveried Motorbase Fords in the hands of Cammish.

Colin Turkington was there or thereabouts all morning in his WSR BMW to end up eighth across the two sessions, while fellow multiple champion Gordon Shedden put the second of the Dynamics Hondas into ninth, with both of the West Midlands squad’s Civics stepping up the pace in the second session after doing long 18-lap race runs in the morning period.

The top 10 overall was completed by championship leader Tom Ingram’s Excelr8 Hyundai.

Ingram was just half a tenth down on Hill’s best in the dying stages of the second session when the red flags appeared with less than 90 seconds on the clock to retrieve the Laser Tools Racing Infiniti of Aiden Moffat.

Apart from Ingram, most of the leading contenders sat in the pits for the final period of running, since Thruxton is the only circuit where the hard-compound Goodyear tyre is used and, with another event at the Hampshire speedbowl coming up in August, they are mindful of saving carryover rubber for later in the season.

BTCC Thurxton - Practice results

FP2

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Jake Hill	19	1'15.722
2	Ashley Sutton	16	1'15.896	0.174	0.174
3	Josh Cook	16	1'15.949	0.227	0.053
4	Daniel Rowbottom	15	1'15.969	0.247	0.020
5	Daniel Lloyd	17	1'16.083	0.361	0.114
6	Dan Cammish	15	1'16.099	0.377	0.016
7	Gordon Shedden	14	1'16.198	0.476	0.099
8	Colin Turkington	18	1'16.294	0.572	0.096
9	Jason Plato	10	1'16.354	0.632	0.060
10	Tom Chilton	16	1'16.363	0.641	0.009
11	Stephen Jelley	19	1'16.468	0.746	0.105
12	Jade Edwards	17	1'16.667	0.945	0.199
13	Tom Ingram	18	1'16.686	0.964	0.019
14	Sam Osborne	19	1'16.704	0.982	0.018
15	Ollie Jackson	18	1'16.720	0.998	0.016
16	Bobby Thompson	16	1'16.779	1.057	0.059
17	Ash Hand	16	1'16.805	1.083	0.026
18	Michael Crees	17	1'16.837	1.115	0.032
19	Adam Morgan	12	1'16.938	1.216	0.101
20	Rory Butcher	14	1'16.977	1.255	0.039
21	George Gamble	16	1'17.004	1.282	0.027
22	Aron Taylor-Smith	17	1'17.056	1.334	0.052
23	Aiden Moffat	16	1'17.097	1.375	0.041
24	Ricky Collard	15	1'17.631	1.909	0.534
25	Jack Butel	18	1'17.958	2.236	0.327
26	Nicolas Hamilton	21	1'18.017	2.295	0.059
27	Dexter Patterson	21	1'18.024	2.302	0.007
28	Will Powell	20	1'18.492	2.770	0.468
29	Rick Parfitt Jr.	18	1'19.081	3.359	0.589
View full results

FP1

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Josh Cook	13	1'15.462
2	Jason Plato	12	1'15.573	0.111	0.111
3	Jake Hill	19	1'15.642	0.180	0.069
4	Ashley Sutton	15	1'15.952	0.490	0.310
5	Colin Turkington	19	1'16.153	0.691	0.201
6	Dan Cammish	14	1'16.263	0.801	0.110
7	Tom Ingram	17	1'16.287	0.825	0.024
8	Adam Morgan	18	1'16.306	0.844	0.019
9	Rory Butcher	14	1'16.438	0.976	0.132
10	Stephen Jelley	21	1'16.495	1.033	0.057
11	Daniel Rowbottom	22	1'16.579	1.117	0.084
12	Bobby Thompson	18	1'16.585	1.123	0.006
13	George Gamble	20	1'16.624	1.162	0.039
14	Ricky Collard	19	1'16.673	1.211	0.049
15	Aiden Moffat	20	1'16.674	1.212	0.001
16	Gordon Shedden	21	1'16.678	1.216	0.004
17	Daniel Lloyd	16	1'16.768	1.306	0.090
18	Ash Hand	21	1'16.784	1.322	0.016
19	Ollie Jackson	20	1'16.937	1.475	0.153
20	Tom Chilton	12	1'16.961	1.499	0.024
21	Sam Osborne	21	1'17.534	2.072	0.573
22	Jade Edwards	19	1'17.642	2.180	0.108
23	Jack Butel	20	1'18.255	2.793	0.613
24	Aron Taylor-Smith	16	1'18.327	2.865	0.072
25	Dexter Patterson	23	1'18.343	2.881	0.016
26	Nicolas Hamilton	22	1'18.390	2.928	0.047
27	Will Powell	22	1'18.703	3.241	0.313
28	Rick Parfitt Jr.	18	1'18.720	3.258	0.017
View full results