Josh Cook: ‘We’re getting close’

Josh Cook says he feels the One Motorsport team is ‘getting close’ to unlocking the full potential of its Honda Civic Type R after a hat-trick of top-five finishes at Croft.

Whilst the team has run the Civic for a number of seasons, the decision to switch to the Neil Brown-developed Honda engine for 2023 hasn’t been without its problems – with Cook managing just two overall podiums in the first half of the season.

Having qualified towards the sharp end of the grid, Cook was on solid form in all three races in North Yorkshire – picking up a hat-trick of Independents’ class wins to strengthen his points lead.

The final race of the weekend would yield an overall podium finish as, having pushed Colin Turkington hard at the start, he would eventually take the flag in third spot having lost out to Tom Ingram mid-way round lap one.

Cook now sits in sixth place overall.

“We still lack a bit of pace as I think everyone could see, but a third is a third and I’ll take it,” he said.

“I could have played it safe in the final race and tried waiting for an extra lap before trying to pass Colin, but I went for the glory on lap one and it ultimately let Tom get a run. However, I’d do the same thing again if I was in the same situation.

“We’ve had better weekends but we’ve also had worse, and it was a good collection of results with a fourth, a fifth and a third. We are still trying to find the secrets and unlock the ultimate pace from the One Motorsport Honda but we are getting there and the car was very close last weekend. We can walk away with our heads held high.”

The team benefitted from having the experienced figure of ex-Team Dynamics engineer Barry Plowman working in the garage over the Croft weekend after his departure from Team HARD, with Cook now hopeful of a strong showing next time out at Knockhill.

“We have got a direction to go in with the chassis and we will work hard on that,” he said. “Our tails are up at the moment and I want to carry that forward with positivity going into Knockhill.

“That is a great proving ground and we can go there and go on full attack.”