Josh Cook took victory in the first British Touring Car Championship race at Croft after surviving a last-corner attack from Ash Sutton, despite not crossing the finish line in front.
Tom Ingram was first past the chequered flag but, in the wake of a crackdown on track-limits offences, he had been given a five-second penalty, which relegated him to third in the results.
The race began on a wet track amid continuing drizzle, with Cook on pole in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport following his win in Saturday’s qualifying race.
Cook immediately opened an advantage over the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titaniums of Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton, once the fast-starting Daryl De Leon had autocrossed his way out of the leading bunch thanks to a nerf from behind at the chicane on the opening lap.
Ingram, meanwhile, was making up ground on the leading trio in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback. As the drizzle began to abate, the reigning champion tried numerous times to pass Sutton, with the leading quartet running in close formation.
Eventually, the rat-a-tat-tatting from Ingram on Sutton put the Focus’s tracking out of alignment, and the runaway championship leader went skating wide onto the grass at Sunny In on the 12th lap of 15, promoting Ingram to third.
Ashley Sutton, NAPA Racing UK
Photo by: JEP
Half a lap later, Ingram got down the inside of Cammish – who by now was out of TOCA Turbo Boost – at Hawthorns to take second. But, with the rain returning in greater intensity, notification came that both Ingram and Cammish had been hit with five-second penalties for track-limits offences.
Ingram immediately speared down the inside of Cook at the hairpin at the end of the 13th lap, and set about trying to build a gap over the remaining two tours to wipe out the penalty – to no avail.
Cammish, meanwhile, did not make life difficult for Sutton on the final lap as his team-mate sailed past on the back straight, and the four-time champion hauled in Cook prior to the final-corner nudge. “It was a nice little bump to help me turn the car!” quipped the race winner.
“Nobody wants to be the first on the scene when it suddenly goes to a damp track,” continued Cook. “It was nice to be able to settle into a rhythm, and I could see it all kicking off behind, and soon got told there were a bunch of penalties.
“I knew that if I could keep it on track, not abuse track limits, that it would be an easier race. As soon as I saw Tom put his nose up inside at the hairpin, I thought, ‘There you go.’ There was no way he was going to pull out five seconds in the remaining laps.”
Such was the advantage the leading quartet held over the rest of the field that Cammish’s 5s penalty did not affect his result – and, should it dry out, he will be able to use the soft tyres in race two whereas Cook, Sutton and Ingram will all be forced to run the hard Goodyears.
Josh Cook, Speedworks Corolla Racing Toyota Corolla GR Sport
Photo by: JEP
Ricky Collard was the best of the rest in fifth with his Excelr8 Hyundai, shadowed throughout by the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sports of Charles Rainford and De Leon, with De Leon grabbing sixth from his team-mate with four laps remaining.
Aiden Moffat claimed eighth in his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon ahead of Dan Lloyd (Restart Racing Hyundai) and Dan Rowbottom (CPRL Mercedes A35 Saloon), but Lloyd was another hit with a 5s track-limits penalty, promoting Rowbottom to ninth and Mikey Doble (PMR Audi) to 10th.
Rowbottom was the best-placed of the eight drivers who went to the grid on hard tyres – in order to get rid of them for the day. All but Chris Smiley pitted at the end of the formation lap, by which time they were under starter’s orders, to have wet-weather rubber fitted.
BTCC Croft – Race 1 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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