Josh Cook apologises for clash with team-mate Dave Newsham

Josh Cook apologised for his part in a clash with Power Maxed Racing team-mate Dave Newsham at Thruxton, but it didn’t overshadow another hugely promising weekend for the Clio Cup graduate.

Cook steered his Chevrolet Cruze to another top 10 qualifying position on Saturday, and followed up eighth on the grid with ninth in the opening encounter. A second top 10 start beckoned, but Cook was forced to take evasive action at the start to avoid the spinning Andy Priaulx, and collected a Dunlop banner across the front of his car.

The inevitable pitstop to remove the debris condemned Cook to a finish at the tail of the field, but he fought back all the way to ninth in the finale, albeit with a minor collision with Newsham early on in proceedings.

Lauding the “astonishing” progress the team have made since taking over from BTC Racing, Cook said the weekend had been another positive experience.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Cook said: “On the whole it’s been a good weekend for Power Maxed Racing and we’ve show we’ve got a lot of pace in the car, qualifying near the front and getting a couple of top 10 finishes.

“For me it’s been a tough weekend, a bit on and off. There was the race two incident avoiding Andy Priaulx, and obviously in that final race I was coming through the pack and just managed to touch Dave into a slide.

“The number one rule is don’t touch your team-mate and I’ve managed to break it! But he’s fine about it and he’s seen it’s not intentional. I’ve come back to the awning with my tail between my legs…”

Aside from the brush with Newsham, Cook also found himself embroiled in some eye-catching battles with touring car veterans Rob Collard and Matt Neal. He got the better of the West Surrey Racing driver with a fine move at Allard, but eventually dropped behind Honda Racing Team’s Neal following contact at the final chicane.

Cook said: “It was on the edge. Rob’s a forceful driver and he’s just a very good racer. Positioning the car was tough and I managed to pull it off.

“With Neal, I braked and he just gave me a shunt in the back. It could have ended pretty messily if I had hung in there, so I had to take a bit of evasive action. But that’s racing – it’s not like he tried to turn me around. That’s what touring cars is about…”

The series now heads into a break before the Oulton Park meeting in June, and Cook says there is more to come from both him and the team.

He said: “We’ve got a very good initial bite [into the corners] but there are still areas we need to work on. In the high-speed stuff the car is very good, but there is still more pace in the car and still more pace in me.

“As the season progresses we want to get as far into the top 10 as we can. Every time we go out we’re learning. We’ve not done much testing compared with the other teams, so I think what we are producing is pretty astonishing.

“We’re going to go to Oulton and try a few setup changes, but the one thing you can be sure of is we’ll be giving it 10 out of 10 for effort.”