One Motorsport’s Josh Cook is targeting ‘big success’ at Brands Hatch this weekend, with the Honda racer having previously won five times at the circuit, including a double win on the Indy layout last year.
A steady start to the 2023 season saw Cook, the Brackley-based team’s best-ranked driver in the standings, claim a brace of top ten finishes at the Donington Park season opener, bookending a 19th-place finish in a rain affected race two.
Having gone into the 2023 season with not only a new Neil Brown Engineering-prepared engine, but also a new chassis from Team Dynamics, Cook is looking to build on the data which he and the team collected from the opening event.
Cook is also hoping to score big on the short circuit, having relied on wins at the Kent venue and at Thruxton in both 2021 and 2022 to spur on his championship challenges.
“Brands Hatch is a circuit I enjoy, and we are certainly going there with some big success in our sights,” said Cook.
“We made some solid progress at Donington with what is effectively a brand-new car for me with a new engine, and we have a reference now which is something we can build on.
“The One Motorsport with Starline Racing Honda team has been working flat-out in the background to give me the best opportunity they can, and the Indy track is a circuit I have had decent success on, historically. We need to take the momentum we have and put it into practice this weekend.
“As ever in the BTCC, it is about keeping the tally ticking over. If wins aren’t on the table, I will be aiming to collect as many points as I can and learn as much as we can.
“If wins are on the table, then watch me go for it…”
Team Principal Danny Buxton paid tribute to the work carried out by the team’s mechanics back at its Brackley base in between the events.
“We have learned so much from the running we have done at Donington, and the team has left no stone unturned in preparations for Brands Hatch. They have been fantastic,” explained Buxton.
“We have built up our relationship with engine tuner Neil Brown too, and we are strengthening our relationship with the new drivers to the team, Will [Powell] and Aiden [Moffat], too. We will be in a positive frame of mind going into this second meeting.
“Brands is a place where we ran really strongly last season, so we are taking that confidence with us. The weather forecast looks a bit iffy, and we have done a strategy review after the downpour at Donington Park to make us better prepared for all eventualities.
“Given the effort that the team has put in and the relationships that are growing within One Motorsport with Starline Racing, we will very much be on the front foot this weekend.”