Josh Cook storms to Thruxton pole position

BTC Racing’s Thruxton expert Josh Cook claimed pole position for the opening British Touring Car Championship race at the Hampshire circuit, beating MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill by 0.077 seconds.

Cook left it until the final four minutes of the session to elevate himself to the top of the timesheets, having earlier been comfortably in the top ten throughout but not at the top.

The Honda driver’s lap time of 1 minute 15.310 seconds probed to be good enough to see off the challenge from the field, with few drivers thereafter improving their time and leaving Cook to score the third BTCC pole position of his career.

His lap time was ultimately a tenth slower than the qualifying lap record which had been set in 2020, and given that Cook only had 1.5 seconds of hybrid deployment available per lap due to his championship position, perhaps suggests the system has less of an effect at the fast circuit.

Hill continued his run of always qualifying on the front row of the grid in 2022, ending up less than a tenth slower than Cook.

NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish moved up the timesheets in the final minute of the session to claim third, a gain of five places, as the Motorbase driver ended up 0.081 seconds from Cook.

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington was also a late improver, the four-time champion having been down in 15^th with just two minutes left before he pulled together a strong lap.

Ash Sutton was fifth in his NAPA Racing Ford, which has benefitted from a weight reduction since the last round, allowing the team to redistribute the weight in other areas of the car to aid the setup.

Team Dynamics’ Daniel Rowbottom was sixth fastest, although the Honda driver couldn’t take to the track in the final minutes of the session following an incident with Sam Osborne.

With five minutes remaining, Rowbottom was coming into the pits and thus slow out of the final chicane, when Osborne, on a fast lap, came up behind him and misjudged the speed, clipping the back of the Civic.

Having been second in FP2, BTC Racing’s Jason Plato enjoyed his best qualifying of the year thus far to claim seventh for race one, just under four tenths slower than his pole-setting team-mate.

Championship leader Tom Ingram was eighth in the leading Excelr8 Hyundai, with Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden and Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley completing the top ten.

Power Maxed Racing’s Ash Hand was an impressive 11^th quickest in the ageing Vauxhall Astra, ahead of the Ciceley Motorsport BMW of Adam Morgan in 12^th.

A challenging session for the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK Corollas saw Rory Butcher in just 15^th, at a circuit where in 2021 he was inside the top five on both occasions.

Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat qualified as the leading Infiniti in 17^th but the Scot also suffered from a broken left-rear damper that limited his running in the session early on.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:40 BST on Sunday.

Qualifying result

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	66		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	15	1:15.310	–
2	24		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	18	1:15.387	0.077
3	9		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	16	1:15.391	0.081
4	50		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	16	1:15.471	0.161
5	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	14	1:15.526	0.216
6	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	11	1:15.539	0.229
7	11		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	10	1:15.698	0.388
8	80		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	1:15.713	0.403
9	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	12	1:15.971	0.661
10	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	18	1:16.002	0.692
11	97		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	15	1:16.024	0.714
12	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	18	1:16.053	0.743
13	123		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	15	1:16.198	0.888
14	19		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	15	1:16.211	0.901
15	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	1:16.226	0.916
16	42		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	19	1:16.248	0.938
17	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	14	1:16.401	1.091
18	3		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	14	1:16.529	1.219
19	777		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	14	1:16.533	1.223
20	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	15	1:16.576	1.266
21	99		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	16	1:16.596	1.286
22	77		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	18	1:16.659	1.349
23	21		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	1:16.715	1.405
24	48		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	15	1:16.828	1.518
25	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	15	1:16.993	1.683
26	17		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	19	1:17.428	2.118
27	96		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	19	1:17.730	2.420
28	62		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	19	1:18.007	2.697
29	20		Will POWELL	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	16	1:18.283	2.973