Josh Cook admits he is unsure where MG RCIB Insurance Racing stack up in the order ahead of qualifying for the first of tomorrows British Touring Car Championship races tomorrow, due to get underway at 15:50 this afternoon.
Cook, who was part of an all-MG front row earlier this season at Donington Park, was only able to place 22nd in the second free practice session, with team-mate Ashley Sutton marginally in front in 20th.
With several other big-hitters seemingly in trouble, including local hero Gordon Shedden and his three-time champion team-mate Matt Neal, the stage has certainly been set for an unpredictable thirty minute qualifying session around the challenging 1.27 mile Fife circuit.
Reflecting on the two forty minute sessions earlier in the day, Cook explained that the relative lack of pace compared to other meetings was due primarily to a mixed programme of setup work, as well as space being at a premium as 31 NGTC cars fight with one another for clear track space in order to set a fast time.
He also admitted he is taking a step into the unknown with regards to what to expect from the session, but is hopeful that both his and the teams best will be enough for an improved result.
“[We] really don’t know. Free practice has been a bit of a mix, we’ve been trying things and we couldn’t put laps together because of traffic,” he explained.
“We’ll see our true pace in qualifying, and there’s a few other people that haven’t show their hands yet. It’ll be interesting to see, but we’ll be giving it a hundred percent as usual.”
When quizzed, Cook also admitted that qualifying could effectively become a contest of who can get the best space on circuit, as opposed to roll out with the quickest overall package.
He insists that his aim is simply to keep a clean nose and hope luck falls on the side of him and Sutton over the course of the half-hour.
“Yeah, it could be. We’ve just got to keep out of trouble. Hopefully we can find the space, you can’t engineer that and hopefully we can get a bit of luck as well to make sure the track is clear when we need it to be.”
The session gets underway at 15:50.