Josh Cook slams driving standards at Oulton Park

Josh Cook was left disappointed with the actions of his rivals at Oulton Park, claiming that at times he felt that it was getting dangerous on track.

Cook seemed to be on for a potential podium in the final race of the day at the Cheshire circuit, but was bumped out of second place by reigning champion Gordon Shedden before being stuck behind an incredibly hard defending Tom Ingram in the Speedworks Toyota Avensis.

“It just got dangerous didn’t it?” Cook told TouringCarTimes. “I’m all for good hard racing and good defending, I did it myself in race two, but there comes a point when just defending turns into being really dangerous. We had good pace in the car, the guys did a great job to repair it after it got destroyed by a few guys in race two. Just a bit of a bumper car day, it’s notoriously hard to overtake around here but a few people just resorted into driving into each other.

“I’m a bit gutted, especially to be punted off by Shedden and then to be stuck behind Ingram. Any time I got anywhere near him, alongside, even completely alongside, on the straight, in a bend, inside or outside, as soon as I was there it was BANG contact, send me straight off, it was getting to the point where it might have been safer to just sit behind him or just push him wide and carry on.”

The reigning Jack Sears Trophy champion defended the tough nature of touring car racing, saying that he enjoys a bit of “rubbin’s racin'”, but believes that the standards at Oulton Park were a little too heavy handed.

“Like I say I love a bit of touring car racing. I love a bit of rubbing, a bit of shunting and a bit of hard racing, that’s why we’re here but there comes a point. In race two I was battling with Collard, I made him go the long way, and fair play to him he held it and took the place, he made a mistake next corner, paid the price and I got the place back.

“Tom’s obviously quite new to touring car racing, he’s quick but he’s new to touring car racing, he needs to have a look back at that race and probably rethink his strategy. Shedden obviously thought there was a gap appearing and it never appeared and I got a bit of a shunt in the rear but I’ve had plenty of good races with Shedden and I’m sure it wasn’t intentional. That’s the way that it goes sometimes. We saved it, continued, that was nowhere near as dangerous as what Ingram was doing. I’m not going to hold a grudge, just got to try to take all the positives from the weekend, the guys gave me a great car.”

The incidents were discussed post race by the stewards, including a post-race coming together between Ingram and Cook, but no further action was taken.