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Thruxton BTCC: Josh Cook jumps Ash Sutton to win finale

Josh Cook took victory in the final British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton, beating Ashley Sutton into the first corner to earn his second win of 2019

BTC Racing driver Cook survived two safety car restarts to win by 0.4 seconds over Rory Butcher, who now moves joint top of the points with defending champion Colin Turkington.

Light rain fell over the opening sector of the circuit as the cars set off on their green flag lap, and although Sutton's initial launch was strong, he was overly cautious into Allard corner and that allowed Cook to carry momentum and overtake the Subaru Levorg into Campbell.

Further back, Rob Collard tried to pass fifth-starting Butcher at the same point but spun and was collected by an unsighted Adam Morgan, which brought out the safety car.

After a four-lap delay, Cook led a controlled restart as Sutton was hunted down by Butcher.

The AmD Tuning driver, who scored his first ever BTCC win at Brands Hatch in the opening round, enjoyed a good exit out of Goodwood.

That combined with Sutton's wide line allowed Butcher through to second place, although the battle meant Cook was now half a second to the good.

But his lead was eliminated after a recovering Collard collided with the MG6 of Rob Smith, which span the Excelr8 car into the path of Carl Boardley's Volkswagen CC.

Another safety car was deployed, but Cook led away cleanly again as the race resumed, with Butcher and Sutton breaking away from Matt Neal in fourth.

A resurgent Sutton left it until the last lap to line a move up on Butcher to retake second, but he ran wide on the exit of Church and killed his run into the final chicane.

That left Butcher to finish runner-up to Cook, and combined with his fifth and seventh places in the earlier races climbed him to 102 points and level with Turkington.

Sutton was third ahead of Neal, Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish.

Oliphant finished as the highest ranked BMW in seventh, ahead of Jason Plato and Colin Turkington.

A recovering Aidan Moffat completed the top 10 in his Mercedes A-Class, leading home Cook's team-mate Chris Smiley.

Stephen Jelley had been closing on race one and two winner Andrew Jordan in a bid for a top 10 finish but the pair touched at Cobb.

Jordan span down to 17th, having also had to take to the grass to avoid Collard's collision with Morgan.

Butcher's team-mate Sam Tordoff suffered further issues, following the alternator problem that denied him the opening race win, and he retired after six laps.

Race three result

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Josh Cook BTC Racing Honda 19 28m30.020s
2 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning Honda 19 0.420s
3 Ash Sutton BMR Racing Subaru 19 0.894s
4 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 19 3.786s
5 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 19 4.468s
6 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 19 5.510s
7 Tom Oliphant WSR BMW 19 6.012s
8 Jason Plato Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 19 6.466s
9 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 19 6.728s
10 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 19 11.326s
11 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Honda 19 11.679s
12 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 19 12.112s
13 Tom Chilton Motorbase Performance Ford 19 12.826s
14 Rob Collard Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 19 13.115s
15 Senna Proctor BMR Racing Subaru 19 13.511s
16 Ollie Jackson Motorbase Performance Ford 19 15.609s
17 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 19 16.493s
18 Jake Hill Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 19 17.280s
19 Matt Simpson Simpson Racing Honda 19 19.707s
20 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen 19 23.297s
21 Sam Osborne Excelr8 Motorsport MG 19 32.064s
22 Michael Crees Team Hard Volkswagen 19 43.032s
23 Rob Smith Excelr8 Motorsport MG 19 1m14.546s
24 Nicolas Hamilton Motorbase Performance Ford 18 1 Lap
- Daniel Rowbottom Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 12 Retirement
- Carl Boardley Team Hard Volkswagen 8 Retirement
- Mark Blundell Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 7 Retirement
- Sam Tordoff AmD Tuning Honda 6 Retirement
- Jack Goff Team Hard Volkswagen 0 Retirement
- Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 0 Retirement

Drivers' standings

Pos Driver Points
1 Colin Turkington 102
2 Rory Butcher 102
3 Josh Cook 100
4 Ash Sutton 97
5 Matt Neal 85
6 Tom Ingram 81
7 Tom Chilton 68
8 Dan Cammish 66
9 Andrew Jordan 65
10 Jason Plato 60
11 Jake Hill 57
12 Rob Collard 50
13 Adam Morgan 46
14 Stephen Jelley 42
15 Tom Oliphant 40
16 Sam Tordoff 35
17 Chris Smiley 31
18 Aiden Moffat 30
19 Bobby Thompson 15
20 Senna Proctor 11
21 Jack Goff 10
22 Ollie Jackson 5
23 Michael Crees 4
24 Mark Blundell 2
25 Matt Simpson 1
26 Carl Boardley 1


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