Josh Cook secures Thruxton history with opening race win

Josh Cook secured his place in the history books with victory in the opening BTCC race of the weekend at Thruxton.

The BTC Racing driver had gone into the weekend with seven wins to his name, leaving him level with Fabrizio Giovanardi, Yvan Muller and Gordon Shedden on the top of the list but was in the box seat to add to his tally having qualified on pole.

When the lights went out, it was Jake Hill who jumped into the lead going through Allard in the BMW only for Cook to then take the outside line into the first part of the Complex in order to sneak back ahead into P1.

Behind, there would be drama on the run to Noble when Dan Rowbottom and Dan Cammish touched, which was enough to send Cammish off across the grass and forced points leader Tom Ingram to take avoiding action – leaving the pair to both pit in order to have grass removed from their cars.

From that point on Cook would remain out front through to the finish despite the best efforts of Hill behind, with the lead duo able to break away from Ash Sutton behind.

Sutton had held third from the opening lap but found himself under pressure from Rowbottom, who nipped ahead at the complex on lap nine, only to then lose the spot immediately as Sutton reclaimed the spot on the run to Noble.

Colin Turkington nipped past the Honda later in the lap and would chase Sutton home in fourth, with Rowbottom – who set the fastest lap – in fifth. Jason Plato rounded out the top six ahead of Adam Morgan, with the Ciceley driver making progress through the order into seventh in his BMW.

Dan Lloyd, who benefitted from the lap one shenanigans to rocket up into eighth, would finish in the same position in the leading Hyundai, with Stephen Jelley and Ash Hand rounding out the top ten.

After his earlier stop, Ingram would end up in 21st spot, which means Cook has now taken the championship lead ahead of race two.