BTC Racing’s Josh Cook took a commanding victory in the opening British Touring Car race at Thruxton ahead of Jake Hill.
The Honda Civic driver, who now sits third in the Drivers Standings, got the better of Daniel Rowbottom and Jake Hill on the first lap of the race and didn’t look back to continue his fine form at the Hampshire circuit.
Rowbottom, who had started the race from pole, found himself pushed down the field by the midpoint of the opening lap after both Hill and Team BMW’s Tom Oliphant also both managed to get past the Halfords Racing With Cataclean driver after he was forced wide when Cook overtook him.
A busy opening lap also then saw Oliphant, who was second, overtaken by Hill in a fine move around the outside going into the chicane at the end of lap one.
With the top three then quickly getting away from the rest of the pack, Rowbottom soon found himself under pressure from Toyota GAZOO Racing UK’s Rory Butcher, with the Scottish driver attempting several moves over the next few laps.
With the pair battling among themselves, this enabled both Adam Morgan and a flying Ash Sutton to both close up behind, with the championship leader eventually making the most of Butcher overtaking the Honda driver on lap nine to then force his way past and move into fifth.
The late stages of the race then saw Butcher, who was carrying no weight aboard his Toyota Corolla, manage to hold off Sutton, with the Infiniti driver now extending his championship lead to 19 points ahead of Tom Ingram after finishing fifth.
Seventh and eighth went to Morgan and Senna Proctor while Jason Plato finally got the better of Ingram at the chicane on the penultimate lap to take ninth.
Plato’s teammate Dan Lloyd, who had been given a five second time penalty for starting the race out of position, ended race one 11th after his penalty was applied.
Championship rivals Colin Turkington and Gordon Shedden both couldn’t force their way forward during the opening race of the weekend, with the pair ending the race in 12th and 13th respectively, despite Turkington trying his hardest to get past Ingram on the final lap.
Further down the field, both Paul Rivett in the Racing with Wera & Photon Group Ford Focus and Nicolas Hamilton in the ROKIT Racing with iQuoto Trading CUPRA suffered high speed spins at the Hampshire circuit meaning both cars were forced to visit the pitlane.
Race two at Thruxton is set to take place later today at 14:15.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 66 | I |  |
Josh COOK | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 16 | 20:37.012 | 1:16.260 | 3 |
| 2 | 24 | M | |
Jake HILL | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 16 | 1.360 | 1:16.322 | 2 |
| 3 | 15 | M | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 16 | 3.740 | 1:16.454 | 5 |
| 4 | 6 | M | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 16 | 5.847 | 1:16.763 | 4 |
| 5 | 1 | I | |
Ashley SUTTON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 16 | 6.506 | 1:16.805 | 7 |
| 6 | 32 | I | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 16 | 9.260 | 1:16.748 | 1 |
| 7 | 33 | I | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 16 | 10.617 | 1:16.852 | 6 |
| 8 | 18 | I | |
Senna PROCTOR | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 16 | 12.144 | 1:16.959 | 10 |
| 9 | 11 | I | |
Jason PLATO | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 16 | 14.511 | 1:16.786 | 11 |
| 10 | 80 | I | |
Tom INGRAM | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 15.970 | 1:17.199 | 12 |
| 11 | 123 | I | |
Daniel LLOYD | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 16 | 16.635 | 1:16.832 | 8 |
| 12 | 2 | M | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 16 | 16.667 | 1:17.097 | 9 |
| 13 | 52 | I | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 16 | 17.480 | 1:17.355 | 14 |
| 14 | 3 | I | |
Tom CHILTON | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 16 | 17.845 | 1:17.426 | 13 |
| 15 | 12 | M | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 16 | 18.535 | 1:17.453 | 15 |
| 16 | 16 | I | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 16 | 21.375 | 1:17.150 | 18 |
| 17 | 22 | I | |
Chris SMILEY | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 21.659 | 1:17.169 | 16 |
| 18 | 48 | M | |
Ollie JACKSON | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 16 | 22.165 | 1:17.504 | 20 |
| 19 | 96 | I | |
Jack BUTEL | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 23.507 | 1:17.281 | 22 |
| 20 | 31 | I | |
Jack GOFF | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 16 | 23.983 | 1:17.463 | 17 |
| 21 | 99 | I | |
Jade EDWARDS | PHSC with BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 16 | 24.259 | 1:17.456 | 19 |
| 22 | 4 | M | |
Sam OSBORNE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 16 | 31.014 | 1:17.152 | 27 |
| 23 | 19 | I | |
Jack MITCHELL | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 16 | 33.060 | 1:17.790 | 25 |
| 24 | 41 | I | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 16 | 35.373 | 1:17.761 | 26 |
| 25 | 62 | I | |
Rick PARFITT Jr | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 35.696 | 1:18.009 | 28 |
| 26 | 23 | M | |
Sam SMELT | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1:17.438 | 24 |
| 27 | 40 | I |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions | CUPRA Leon | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1:17.406 | 21 |
| 28 | 28 | I | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading | CUPRA Leon | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1:19.303 | 29 |
| 29 | 20 | 20 | |
Paul RIVETT | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1:17.158 | 23 |