Rob Collard calls Josh Cook “dangerous” after pair’s battle

Rob Collard labelled Josh Cook “dangerous” after the pair’s battle in the second race at Oulton Park on Sunday, on a day where a series of incidents stunted the West Surrey Racing man’s undoubted speed.

West Surrey Racing’s Collard came into the weekend tied at the top of the standings with Team Dynamics’ Matt Neal, but left it 26 points down on new leader and team-mate Sam Tordoff.

This followed a tough qualifying on maximum ballast which left the BMW 125i down in 16th, and incidents with Triple Eight Racing’s Cook and Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith.

The former came in race two when the pair were battling over sixth, which saw Collard pass Cook in a bold move along the pit wall before going off with a puncture.

Earlier, Eurotech Racing’s Smith took Collard out at the hairpin in race one, a move which saw him hit with a reprimand and two penalty points.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Collard said: “You’ve got to take a view on the whole weekend. We qualified 0.6 off pole with maximum ballast, which I thought was quite a good job. Then all hell broke loose.

“I got knocked out of my rhythm by Jeff Smith, who just rammed into the back of me. It was absolutely outrageous what he did.

“That put me on the back foot and I was probably just a bit too fired up in race two. Josh Cook was very dirty in the way he put me up the pit wall, which was highly dangerous at 100-plus miles an hour.

“I must have picked up a puncture because we had so much debris on the tyres. When I came back on the track I was out of control.

“The only thing I can take out of this weekend is the pace we’ve had, and the positives of the overtakes I’ve done on people like Matt Neal and Colin Turkington, championship winners I’ve caught and overtaken.

“It’s disappointing to say the least because I felt we could be leading the championship. We’ve lost 25 points this weekend I feel.”

Cook himself was critical of driving standards over the weekend, but felt the battle with Collard was fair.

He told TouringCarTimes: “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.”