Photo: Chris Lazenby - Lazenby Visuals

Josh Cook holds on to score victory in damp Croft opener

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Josh Cook scored his second British Touring Car Championship win of the season after coming out on top of a captivating damp opening encounter at Croft.

Tom Ingram had fought his way to the front and took the chequered flag in first but a five-second time penalty ultimately relegated the reigning champion behind Cook and Ash Sutton, who clinched runners-up laurels.

In wet conditions, Cook held the lead in his Toyota Corolla as the lights went out while Dan Cammish, Sutton and Ingram ran line astern in second, third and fourth.

With superior TOCA Turbo Boost deployment to those behind him, Cook initially broke clear of the chasing pack however as the race hit mid-distance, the trio of Cammish, Sutton and Ingram began to close in.

Sutton in particular had a busy time of things as he provided a resolute defence to a charging Ingram. After having the door shut on multiple occasions, the EXCELR8 driver finally managed to find a way past when Sutton made a mistake at Sunny In.

No sooner had he been released of Sutton though, Ingram was then hit with a time penalty for exceeding track limits on one too many occasions. He wasn’t to be the only one either as the likes of Cammish and others fell foul of the officials.

After dispatching Sutton, Ingram quickly found a way past Cammish – who was struggled for grip on his wet tyres – before then muscling his way past Cook at the hairpin with two laps remaining.

Despite pulling clear of Cook, Ingram was ultimately unable to stretch his advantage to five seconds and was classified behind Cook and Sutton, who moved another step closer to clinching a record-breaking fifth title.

Cammish held on to finish fourth, while Ricky Collard enjoyed a trouble-free drive to fifth. Daryl De Leon bounced back from a wild opening lap to clinch Independent honours in sixth, narrowly ahead of his BMW team-mate Charles Rainford.

Completing the top ten was Aiden Moffat, Dan Rowbottom – who was the first of those that pitted at the end of the green flag to switch to wet tyres – and Mikey Doble.