BTCC - Cook Dazzles To Donington Pole
Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook showed impressive pace during the Saturday qualifying for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship to take pole position and have the early advantage going into Sunday’s three mouthwatering races.
Josh Cook. Source: Chequered Images
Cook left it until the final moments of the session to nail together what was a incredible lap in mixed conditions and fend off the likes of BTC Norlin’s Chris Smiley who was on course for his own maiden pole position, until the TAG Racing star stole it away from him. The Motorbase Ford Focus RS of Sam Tordoff, who did also top the times during the session, fell to third and Dan Cammish continued to impress in the new Civic with fourth place.
Young Scot Aiden Moffat, who went well at Donington last year, showed similar pace this time around by putting his Mercedes A Class in fifth before having an unexpected early finish to his session after damaging the front right suspension.
Brands Hatch race winner Jack Goff managed sixth in his ballast laden Honda Civic followed by James Nash, who has been improving in every session since making a return to the championship this year. Tom Chilton backed up the Ford Focus RS pace by putting his machine 8th, just ahead of the sister Eurotech Honda of Brett Smith. Tom Oliphant rounded out the top ten for Ciceley Motorsport.
A whole host of touring car household names failed to make much of an impact during the session, with Tom Ingram (16th), Matt Neal (17th), Rob Austin (20th ), Jason Plato (21st), Ash Sutton (22nd), Rob Collard (25th) and Andrew Jordan way back in 30th whilst double champion Colin Turkington did well to wrestle his BMW up into 11th.
FULL QUALIFYING TIMES:
2018 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Qualifying – Donington Park
1 Josh COOK (GBR) Power Maxed TAG Racing 1m19.816s (89.26mph) 2 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +0.030s 3 Sam TORDOFF (GBR) Team GardX Racing with Motorbase +0.167s 4 Dan CAMMISH (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.279s 5 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +0.495s 6 Jack GOFF (GBR) WIX Racing with Eurotech +0.522s 7 James NASH (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +0.522s 8 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher +0.580s 9 Brett SMITH (GBR) WIX Racing with Eurotech +0.665s 10 Tom OLIPHANT (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport +0.704s 11 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +0.764s 12 James COLE (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher +0.799s 13 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport +0.801s 14 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +0.849s 15 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed TAG Racing +0.869s 16 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +0.902s 17 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.911s 18 Sam SMELT (GBR) AmD with Cobra Exhausts +1.092s 19 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) AmD with AutoAid/RCIB Insurance Racing +1.125s 20 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing +1.165s 21 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1.188s 22 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1.228s 23 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker Racing +1.510s 24 Bobby THOMPSON (GBR) Team HARD with Trade Price Cars +1.517s 25 Rob COLLARD (GBR) Team BMW +1.545s 26 Josh PRICE (GBR) Autoglym Academy Racing +1.580s 27 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmD with Cobra Exhausts +1.666s 28 Mike BUSHELL (GBR) Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing +1.722s 29 Tom BOARDMAN (GBR) AmD with AutoAid/RCIB Insurance Racing +2.256s 30 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +2.506s 31 Jake HILL (GBR) Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing 32 Michael CAINE (GBR) Team HARD with Trade Price Cars
