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Autosport
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Marcus Simmons

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