Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook insisted that there was every reason to suggest that he could fight for a podium position during tomorrow’s British Touring Car Championship races at Donington Park, after qualifying in sixth for the opening race of the day.
The former Clio Cup racer provided arguably the shock of the day with a stellar lap of the Leicestershire circuit, as he qualified 0.636s shy of Colin Turkington’s pole time and ahead of more established names including joint-championship leaders Matt Neal and Jack Goff.
Sixth place on the starting grid for round four of the championship is the highest grid position ever attained by an NGTC Chevrolet Cruze in the championship, but speaking to TouringCars.Net, Cook remained remarkably calm despite the impressive nature of his feat.
“I’m pleased with how qualifying went,” he said. “Ultimately I’m here because I want to win and until we’re at the front we’re going to keep our heads down.
“I’m really pleased with P6 but there’s more work to do – I’m still really chuffed to be on the touring car grid as it is, that was our first proper run at quali given the issues we had at Brands so it was good to see the pace of the car, fingers crossed we can capitalise on P6 and bring home a good race result tomorrow.”
The Bristolian also praised the support of his team-mate Dave Newsham – who he outqualified by four positions – having assisted Cook with his qualifying preparations.
“Me and Dave work together. He helped me with my driving for that quali and we learn from each other. He’s talking a lot; he’s a very accomplished driver.
“Sometimes quali doesn’t go perfectly as we all know and give him a different day, the same car and the same conditions he’d be right at the front as any of these drivers would be so I’m very thankful to Dave for helping me out and fingers crossed we can both bring home decent results for the PMR [Power Maxed Racing] team tomorrow.”
And after the success of qualifying, Cook believed that he had every right to be fighting for a podium position in one of Sunday’s three races, despite having only one prior weekend of experience to his name.
“It’s not unrealistic to be think about it [a podium position],” he insisted. “I’m starting P6, we know what touring cars is like. There are a couple of guys around me who have got ballast which is going to hurt them on a race distance whereas I’m completely ballast-free, we know the car is light on its tyres so anything can happen – I’m really looking forward to it.”