Ballast-heavy Josh Cook happy with front row slot

Points leader Josh Cook was left pleased with a front row start after qualifying for the second round of the BTCC season at Donington Park.

At the circuit where he snared pole position twelve months ago, Cook was able to make light of the additional ballast on his Honda Civic Type R to set the second quickest time in a challenging qualifying session that started in the dry before the return of light rain that had blighted the remainder of the day.

Cook benefitted from a tow from team-mate Chris Smiley – who qualified fourth – in setting his fastest lap and was quick to pay credit to the BTC Racing team for the work it had to done over the course of the day.

“The first time I got to drive this car here in the dry was in qualifying with the two flying laps I managed to get in,” he said. “We didn’t know what to expect because the set-up is totally different to Brands Hatch, and we’re just trying to develop the car to be comfortable for me. It was tricky to go from wet and damp conditions to a dry track where we had to bang the laps in right away like that, and when the rain started to fall, it was too wet in sector two to go any fastest.

“Everyone had a chance to get a time in when the circuit was dry and credit had to go to the team for giving us a car to get the lap in. The ballast has hurt us and I can feel it out of T1 and then in the run from the Old Hairpin – it has done what it is designed to do. However, we’ve run with the ballast all day and the team has gone a great job in engineering the car to allow us to run at the front.”

The only scare for Cook came with a trip across the grass going down the Craner Curves late on, although he admitted it had looked more spectacular on TV than it had behind the wheel.

“It was raining more and more and I came down the Craners behind Chris and there was a small twitch from the rear,” he said. “Taking to the grass was the safer option rather than going sideways into the gravel and we were pushing the boundaries a bit. I couldn’t quite get the speed scrubbed off before we rejoined but it wasn’t as dramatic as it might have looked.”