Josh Cook, Jake Hill beg to differ on race one clash

Josh Cook and Jake Hill were left with differing opinions following the clash that forced both to retire from the opening race of the weekend.

The pair came together at the Complex on the third lap whilst battling for position, with the resultant damage seeing both Cook’s Maximum Motorsport-run Ford Focus and Hill’s Team HARD. Volkswagen retire on the spot.

A clearly angered Hill remonstrated with Cook trackside but would later be hit with a reprimand when the incident was investigated by stewards afterwards.

“Josh forced me wide at the second part of the Complex but I was up the inside for the final part and he turned in on me,” Hill said. “I accept that the TV angle didn’t look good on my part as it looked like I just fired him off, but the onboard cameras showed that I was alongside and that that wasn’t the case; it was probably 50/50 in hindsight.

“My reaction afterwards when I got out of the car wasn’t good as emotions were running high, and I apologise to the marshals as they shouldn’t have had to calm me down. It’ll be hard from the back in race two as we don’t have the pace we expected to have this weekend so I want to have a clean race and see where we end up.”

Cook for his part took an alternative view to the incident.

“I ran Jake wide through the left-hander as I’m entitled to do to defend my position but then I stayed straight as we headed towards the right hander,” he said. “Jake came back onto the circuit from the right hand side and it’s like he tried to open up the corner when I was still there. It was just trying too hard to take the position.”