Cook pips Sutton to top final BTCC test at Donington Park

Josh Cook topped Donington Park’s final day of official pre-season testing for the 2025 British Touring Car Championship campaign by just 0.003 seconds from four-time champion Ash Sutton.

The West Countryman has returned to One Motorsport after its one-season sabbatical to pilot a Honda Civic Type R, and earned bragging rights going into the one-and-a-half-week interlude before the opening race weekend at the same circuit.

Cook’s screen-topping performance on the BTCC’s launch day means that all three days of official pre-season testing have been headed by drivers from Independent teams, following the headlining efforts from Max Hall and Mikey Doble over the two days at Croft in early April.

Unlike at Croft, where the qualifying lap record was pulverised thanks to the removal of hybrid lightening the cars to the tune of 55kg, Sutton’s 2023 Donington standard of 1m07.570s remained relatively untroubled until the final 20 minutes of running.

It was Sutton himself, aboard an Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST, who was first to go under his old mark, with a 1m07.508s set on medium-compound Goodyear tyres.

A few minutes later, Cook embarked on a run on the soft rubber, reeling off consecutive laps in 1m07.438s and 1m07.447s.

Sutton emerged again, but still on medium tyres, to squeeze in between Cook’s two best efforts with a 1m07.441s.

Although Cook had what appears to have been a tyre advantage over Sutton, the interesting aspect is that on the lap prior to his two quickest efforts, he blazed through the second sector – which comprises most of the circuit from the Craner Curves to halfway down the back straight – over half a second quicker than anyone else, himself included, managed on the day.

On theoretical bests combined over the three sectors, Cook would have been away from the field and in the distance on a 1m06.895s.

“The car feels good,” professed Cook. “We made a lot of changes during the course of the day and made some good progress. We just need to assess what worked and what didn’t work and make sure we come back next week somewhere in the right ballpark.

“We know it’s going to be extremely close, it always is, and hopefully we’re going to be in the mix at the front.”

Like Sutton, his Alliance Ford team-mate Dan Cammish also used the medium tyres on a late effort during which he clambered into third, albeit 0.2s adrift of the leading duo.

Dan Cammish, NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Fourth fastest, on soft rubber, was an encouraging performance from Chris Smiley as Restart Racing gears up for its first season with new-build Hyundai i30 N machinery – and only its second in the BTCC.

Hyundais from the marque’s ‘manufacturer’ team Excelr8 Motorsport finished 1-2 in the morning session in the hands of 2022 champion Tom Ingram and Adam Morgan. Neither improved in the afternoon, although Ingram’s earlier time remained good enough for fifth overall on the day.

Next up was the third of the Alliance Fords in the hands of the ever-improving Sam Osborne, who pipped Ingram to fifth fastest time in the afternoon session on soft tyres.

Ingram’s quickest times were set on medium tyres – he did get out late on for a run on softs, on which he completed a half-race distance.

Another Excelr8 Hyundai was guided by Tom Chilton to seventh ahead of the lead Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Gazoo Racing Corolla GR Sport of Gordon Shedden, both on medium tyres.

Morgan’s morning time on softs put him ninth on the day, with Doble – also on softs – completing the overall top 10 in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.

Mikey Doble, Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing

Photo by: JEP

There were no headline times from the squadron of West Surrey Racing BMWs, with reigning champion Jake Hill only squeaking into the top 20 at the end of the day and none of the team’s quartet in the leading 15, with the squad appearing to be focusing on long runs for its 3-Series machinery throughout the day.

Only two red-flag stoppages occurred, one when Aron Taylor-Smith’s Speedworks Toyota needed retrieval from the Old Hairpin gravel during the morning, and one when Nic Hamilton’s Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra went off at the chicane in the afternoon, although both continued testing afterwards.

Of the 24 cars entered for the series, just one did not appear – the Excelr8 Hyundai that Michael Crees will campaign for the first half of the season before Senna Proctor takes over. Both drivers were in attendance.