Photo: PSP Images

Josh Cook: ‘We could have a serious problem on our hands’

Josh Cook insists that his BTC Racing team is facing a ‘serious problem’ if it is unable to resolve the straight-line speed issues that hampered his challenge at Croft.

The team’s Honda Civic Type R – a previous winner at the circuit – was well down the top speed figures across the weekend, most notably in qualifying where Cook was in the bottom four across all three speed traps.

It followed a similar result at Oulton Park last time out, where he was in the bottom two in both the second and third speed traps.

Qualifying down in 20th place as a result, Cook faced an uphill battle in the races but managed to work his way forwards into the points in the first two before the reverse grid draw put him on the front row for race three.

There, he managed to take second place after going ‘absolutely flat-out on every lap with no mistakes’, with the now former points leader admitting that the team needed more straight-line performance from the TOCA engine to remain in contention.

“We still lack a lot in overall performance and it isn’t down to the chassis – it’s down to the powertrain,” he admitted. “It’s nice to bag a few points this weekend and we need them, but we’ve got a serious problem on our hands if we can’t sort something out with the engine before we go to Snetterton.

“We have the test coming up there where we can try a few things and see what improvements we can make on our side, but it’s the parity between us and the other cars that is the issue. When we are near the Hyundai or the BMW, we have no answer for them regardless of how I come off a corner and it makes it difficult to race.

“I’m happy we managed to salvage something this weekend as Oulton Park and Croft have been bad weekends, but it isn’t all smiling faces.”

Team boss Danny Buxton agreed that the upcoming weeks could be ‘critical’ as the team worked with engine supplier M-Sport to improve performance.

“We need a bit of grunt really and we are working hard with M-Sport,” he said. “We’ve got a month to work on it and we have to see what development plan we can put in place with the Snetterton tyre test coming up.

“We know our issues are under the bonnet, and we have to work to nail it. The next few weeks will be critical for our season.”