Josh Cook tops shortened first practice at Thruxton

Josh Cook topped the times in a shortened opening practice session as the BTCC field hit the track at Thruxton ahead of the sixth meeting of the campaign.

As expected, the BTC Racing man found himself towards the sharp end of the times throughout the session in his Honda Civic Type R and hit the front shortly after the half-way stage, moving to the top with a lap of 1:15.737s and then improving again on the next lap to put himself just under a quarter of a second clear at the top.

There would be no chance for improvements in the final ten minutes however, with an off for Stephen Jelley’s BMW going through turn one leading to the session being halted – with his car left stricken in the middle of the circuit thanks to damaged rear suspension.

With the clocking continuing to run down, the decision was taken not to restart, leaving Cook clear of Ash Sutton at the top.

Sutton’s second place was impressive considering the ballast on his Infiniti Q50 as he edged out Senna Proctor to prevent a BTC 1-2 on the times, with Adam Morgan taking fourth in his BMW having taking a short stint on the top of the times.

Tom Ingram was fifth best in his Hyundai as he also made light of the additional weight in the i30 Fastback N ahead of Gordon Shedden, who took a quick trip across the final chicane mid-way through the session after outbraking himself into the corner.

Rory Butcher, Dan Rowbottom, Chris Smiley and Colin Turkington rounded out the top ten.