MG duo confident of strong race pace

The Triple Eight Racing team of Josh Cook and Ash Sutton are both confident of a successful opening BTCC weekend of the year, after impressive Saturday pace in their pair of MG6s.

Cook set the eighth and ninth fastest times in the first two practice sessions of the day, while Sutton was fourth in FP1 and seventh in FP2.

Sutton’s pace continues the strong form he showed at the media day, where he set the second fastest time of the four hour test, only just beaten by Matt Neal in the final few minutes.

“The media day was very good for us,” Sutton told TouringCarTimes. “To go P2 was fantastic so we’ve kind of kept that pace. We didn’t know everyone’s true pace and that’s come out of the woodwork now so to say we’re a tenth off I’m over the moon. I’d come away happy with a top ten so to say we’re top five is brilliant.”

“Given the limited running we’ve had in the car it was great to jump in and show some good pace,” added Cook. “Ash did a great job carrying the pace he had in FP1 and FP2, it was real busy out there so I didn’t really get to hook up my ideal lap time but that’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s really great to be both in the top six for Triple Eight Racing MG team.”

Both drivers are confident they have strong race pace going in to the first three races of the year, with Sutton saying that the team have worked much harder on their long runs than their qualifying pace.

“To be fair we’ve actually focussed more on our race pace,” said Sutton. “We’ve not gone for outright quali, that was probably only the second ever qualifying run we’ve done, because that suits me more as a driver I’m more a race than I am a qualifier. If these conditions stay the same I think we’ve got a car that’ll work for us.

My main aim is to finish the races this weekend, we’ve met our achievements in qualifying so now we’re saying lets just finish the races and see what we can do, so we’ve got a base-line to work with for the rest of the season.”

Cook share’s Sutton’s enthusiasm, and also hinted that, with both drivers sharing the third row of the grid, the MG pair would be working through the field together in the opening race of the year.

“We’re going to be working as a team,” said Cook. “We both want to be up there, we’re going to have to see how it all pans out but it’s going to be a good race. I’m really looking forward to what we can do with ballast free cars, the testing we did was with weight in so when we get some weight we should still be strong. Even in quali I was just overtaking people so we know there’s some decent pace for a long stint rather than a one-off lap.”