King of Thruxton Cook seals perfect ten with Race Three win

Josh Cook is known as the King of Thruxton and for good reason as he added a positive after his poor start to a potentially promising weekend with Race Three honours as the latest weekend of BTCC action concluded.

It is now 10 out of his 18 victories that have been secured around the Hampshire circuit as he showed his class is still there after a few testing weekends which have dented his Drivers’ Championship credentials.

Starting the race, Stephen Jelley and Colin Turkington started up front but with the BMW’s well known over the course of this weekend to take a while to get up to temperature, the chances were presented on the opening lap with the Honda Civic Type R finding his way past Turkington before braking late on Lap Two to take the lead and top spot off Jelley.

Team orders again were the order of the day this time for Team BMW as Jelley let Turkington through into second to gain more points and challenge Cook but this never materialised as the order stayed the same from there on out.

Ash Sutton was also superb once again as he made place after place moving up to seventh and up four places on the first lap before finding himself in fifth by the end of the race battling with Rory Butcher but only finished just ahead of Dan Rowbottom with a potential issue on the final lap mooted but he still gained valuable ground with the lead only sitting at six points for Turkington heading into Silverstone.

Rowbottom also helped the leading two by picking off the place of Tom Ingram late on, with the latter losing ground in the title fight with Michael Crees who started third ending inside the top ten after a testing opening few laps.

While Gordon Shedden and Dan Cammish completed the top ten, Jake Hill though ran off onto the grass during the opening lap and had to settle for 12th in the end.

2022 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Race Three – Thruxton

1.         Josh COOK (GBR) Rich Energy BTC Racing 14 laps
2.         Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +2.682s
3.         Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team BMW +4.844s
4.         Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Toyota GAZOO Racing UK +6.043s
5.         Ash SUTTON (GBR) Napa Racing UK +7.854s
6.         Daniel ROWBOTTOM (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +8.179s
7.         Tom INGRAM (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com +10.813s
8.         Michael CREES (GBR) CarStore Power Maxed Racing +11.035s
9.         Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +12.034s
10.       Dan CAMMISH (GBR) Napa Racing UK +12.766s
11.       Daniel LLOYD (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com +13.957s
12.       Jake HILL (GBR) ROKiT MB Motorsport +14.197s
13.       Ricky COLLARD (GBR) Toyota GAZOO Racing UK +14.660s
14.       Ollie JACKSON (GBR) Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan +21.752s
15.       Jack BUTEL (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com +23.879s
16.       Tom CHILTON (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com +24.872s
17.       Ash HAND (GBR) CarStore Power Maxed Racing +27.776s
18.       Árón TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing +28.755s
19.       Dexter PATTERSON (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +30.877s
20.       Tom OLIPHANT (GBR) Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero +30.993s
21.       Jade EDWARDS (GBR) Rich Energy BTC Racing +31.554s
22.       Rick PARFITT (GBR) Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing +48.937s
23.       Bobby THOMPSON (GBR) Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero +1 lap
24.       Adam MORGAN (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +1 lap
25.       Jason PLATO (GBR) Rich Energy BTC Racing +6 laps
26.       Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +7 laps
27.       Nicolas HAMILTON (GBR) Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing +8 laps
28.       George GAMBLE (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +12 laps
29.       Sam OSBORNE (GBR) Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan +13 laps