Cook takes superb race one victory in damp conditions

BTC Racing's Josh Cook halts the BMW charge after taking advantage of the greasy conditions to win race one from fifth on the grid.

Simon Evans

15 May 2022

Josh Cook (GBR) - Rich Energy BTC Racing Honda Civic Type

Rich Energy BTC Racing's Josh Cook took his first British Touring Car Championship race victory of the 2022 season after superbly beating the BMWs during a damp race one at Brands Hatch.

With the BMWs enjoying a dominant qualifying day after locking out of the top-four grid positions, the tables turned come race day thanks to a rain shower hitting the circuit just before the opening race.

Starting as the highest FWD runner in fifth position, Cook took full advantage of the greasy conditions, but only after recovering from an early slip off the track at the end of the opening lap.

Having briefly moved up to third ahead of Team BMW's Stephen Jelley, Cook dropped back down to fourth. However, the Honda Civic Type R driver began to move closer to the ascendency after repassing Jelley for P3 on lap 7.

Cook's true pace immediately came apparent with the two leading BMWs of Colin Turkington and Jake Hill coming under increasing threat.

The BMW duo, embroiled in a battle of own with Turkington narrowly holding off an impatient Hill, seemingly began to struggle with keeping their wet tyres in the right window, which resulted in Cook moving ahead of Hill on lap 13 of the race.

Despite the RWD struggles, Turkington initially strengthened his lead to a near two-second advantage. But Cook soon slashed that gap down to just 0.6s by lap 16 before scything past the four-time champion at Paddock Hill corner just one lap later.

It went from bad to worse for Turkington, who slipped further down the order to an eventual fifth place finish as the BMW 330e M Sport limped home in the drying conditions.

Cook eventually took a comfortable 14th career BTCC win, but it was Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish who followed the BTC Racing Honda home after they both profited from RWD demise.

Ingram and Cammish moved ahead of Hill after the ROKiT MB Motorsport driver slid off the track while trying to hunt down Cook with just two-laps to go.

Hill retained fourth ahead of Turkington, while Adam Morgan came home in sixth.

Having elected to make the gamble of running the slick tyre, Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Rory Butcher ended up finishing ahead of where he started, but only after a roller-coaster of a race.

The Toyota Corolla driver started from ninth on the grid and immediately fell to the back of the field after struggling with the slick tyre early on. But by lap 13, Butcher had set the fastest lap of the race and picked off the majority of the pack with ease.

However, with a podium almost within his grasp, Butcher slipped off at the final corner on the last lap of the race, which saw him tumble back down to seventh behind Turkington and Morgan.

Gordon Shedden followed his compatriot home in eighth position ahead of a fine recovery from defending champion Ash Sutton in ninth, with Daniel Rowbottom completing the top-ten order.