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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