Josh Cook charges to Race To Pole glory at Croft

Josh Cook will start the first of Sunday’s three British Touring Car Championship contests at Croft from pole position after charging to a second Race To Pole victory of the season.

Having been fastest in the day’s earlier qualifying session, the Speedworks Motorsport driver withstood a torrent of early pressure from Dan Cammish before ultimately going on to triumph in his Toyota Corolla.

The opening lap saw plenty of action play out as three-time champion Gordon Shedden was sent spinning towards the rear of the pack at turn two, while points leader Ash Sutton wasted no time in muscling his way past both Tom Ingram and Mikey Doble.

With the contest quickly settling down, Cook maintained a steady advantage ahead of Cammish while four-time title winner Sutton kept a watching brief in third in his Ford Focus Titanium.

His mirrors however soon became filled with the Hyundai of Ingram, who was the main beneficiary when Doble’s Audi A3 Saloon momentarily ground to a halt approaching the final hairpin at the end of lap two. He would continue, albeit towards the rear of the pack.

Despite his best efforts, Ingram was unable to find a way past Sutton and when he made a slight mistake at Sunny Out on the penultimate lap, he was relegated to fifth as the WSR BMW of Daryl De Leon took advantage.

Ingram would hold on to fifth as Cook took the chequered flag while Aiden Moffat produced a sublime drive to bag sixth in his Power Maxed Racing machine ahead of the charging Ricky Collard.

CPRL’s Dan Rowbottom found himself in the thick of the action as he moved forward to eighth, finishing narrowly ahead of the Restart Racing duo of Chris Smiley and Dan Lloyd, who completed the top ten.