Josh Cook critical of new medium tyre and driving standards

Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook has reflected positively on an impressive opening half of his maiden BTCC season, but says he’s been unimpressed by some of the driving standards and the new Dunlop medium tyre.

The 24-year-old stamped his authority on the championship by leading convincingly at the second meeting at Donington Park, and has backed that up with 10 other points finishes.

A big crash in the second race at Croft was the biggest setback, and the current Clio Cup vice-champion also feels the new medium tyre introduced by Dunlop at Oulton Park has stymied the development of the Chevrolet Cruze.

Cook also reflected less than favourably on some of the driving standards on show, particularly Team BMR’s Aron Smith, after the pair’s clash while fighting for the win at Donington.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Cook said: “I’ve been really comfortable with the car and really comfortable with the team. I’m pleased with how it’s going, but some of the driving standards have been pretty poor.

“But it goes that way, it’s their style of driving and it’s holding them back and not me.”

On the new medium tyre, Cook added: “This new tyre has ruined things for us. We’ve took a huge fall in our development and we’ve had to go back to the beginning again.

“We’ve learned a lot but it doesn’t show, because the degradation is so high. The tyres fall off a cliff and we have to fight to maintain position.

“We haven’t really shown our true pace. It’s annoying, because we haven’t had any testing, and we end every race weekend as we should have started it.”

Cook is now looking forward to testing in the summer break in his newly repaired Cruze, and was full of praise for his new team for getting the car back on track for the Croft finale.

“The team did a cracking job to get the car back together. It was a big hit, but other than the front bumper it all looked good. That’s twice now that they’ve managed to get the car turned around between races, with Dave [Newsham’s] subframe and now with my accident,” added Cook.