Photo: PSP Images

Josh Cook impressed with MG performance at Brands Hatch

By

Josh Cook was pleased with the performance of both himself and team-mate Ashley Sutton in the first round of the 2016 BTCC season, as both proved themselves as front-runners right from the start.

Cook took fifth place in the opening race of the weekend, setting himself up for what looked like a strong weekend. However, oil in race two sent the Triple Eight Racing driver straight on at Graham Hill Bend and into the tyre barrier, ruining his race two and making race three a damage limitation exercise.

“I’m really pleased with the pace we’ve got in the car in both qualifying and the race,” Cook told TouringCarTimes. “We had a solid base, race two was purely unlucky for me with the oil. I was on the soft tyre with the weight and I think we were doing a fairly good job as well, a bit gutting but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Race three starting from the back, first lap midway through it looks like I’ve popped a power steering pipe and its dumped all its fluid and I’m lucky to have brought it home at all.”

The 2015 season was a tough one for the Triple Eight Racing team, with only one win for Jack Goff throughout the year, but Cook believes a lot of last season was down to bad luck and is hopeful both himself and Sutton can bring more regular wins back to the MG squad.

“The guys behind the scenes do a really great job,” he said. “I don’t think this car underperformed last year, I think a lot of the teams around it over-performed, it still came here at the end of the season with a shot at the championship. It had a fair few podiums, Andrew [Jordan] had some bad luck otherwise he’d have had a few wins. I think it shows there is still pace in the car and the guys do know what they’re doing. I’m chuffed to be a part of it, me and Ash are doing well together as a team, and hopefully we can soon get up on that top step.”

The next round at Donington Park was the scene of Josh Cook’s breakthrough performance in 2015, having a memorable battle with Aron Smith which kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Having taken a significant amount of data out of the Brands Hatch weekend, Cook is now confident that he can be up near the sharp end at Donington.

“We’re going to be giving it everything we’ve got,” concluded Cook. “We’ve learned a lot this weekend so I’m really pleased with the package we’ve got and I think we’ll be able to do a bit of damage.”