Josh Cook: “We should be in good shape”

Josh Cook believes Brands Hatch will be better suited to his Toyota Corolla as the British Touring Car Championship heads to Kent this weekend.

The LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ driver enjoyed a solid start to the new season at Donington Park as he tallied a trio of top ten finishes, with a charging drive to fourth in race two being the highlight.

Now heading to Brands Hatch’s Indy circuit sitting sixth in the overall standings, the two-time Independent Drivers’ champion has outlined that he may need to play the long game on race day as he contends with the differences in hybrid deployment.

“I’m really excited going to Brands Hatch,” Cook said. “I felt like I got the most out of the car at Donington – scoring some solid results in both wet and dry conditions – and I think Brands will suit the Corolla a bit better.

“It’s always close around the ‘Indy’ lap. The big unknown is what effect the hybrid boost and associated deployment speed will have in qualifying; being a shorter circuit, it will probably make less of a difference than it did at Donington, but it will nonetheless be a learning curve for everybody in the field.

“We should be ok on race day, but given our championship position going into the weekend, we might be aiming more towards race three as our principal focus.

“We’ll keep working on the package we’ve got to ensure we extract the absolute most from it, and provided we can settle quickly into a decent rhythm at Brands, I think we should be in good shape to challenge for some top results.”