Josh Cook is hopeful of stitching together a title challenge in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship over the second half of the 2024 campaign, after scything to his second victory of the season for LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ at Croft last weekend (27-28 July).
After setting the pace during free practice around the demanding North Yorkshire circuit behind the wheel of his British-built Toyota Corolla GR Sport and lapping second-quickest in his Qualifying Part 1 group, Cook was disappointed to line up only ninth on the grid for the curtain-raising contest amongst the 20 high-calibre contenders.
Running on the slower hard-compound Goodyear tyre in the first of Sunday’s three races, the Bath-born ace did well to advance to eighth at the chequered flag, with all-bar one of the drivers that finished ahead of him using the more favourable soft option.
Having switched to the faster rubber himself for race two, in front of the live ITV4 television cameras and a capacity trackside crowd soaking up the summer sun, Cook went on a charge. By mid-distance, he was up into second place behind Speedworks Motorsport stablemate Rob Huff, with whom he proceeded to trade fastest laps, and in the closing stages, the 33-year-old seized the lead after pulling off a committed doorhandle-to-doorhandle pass through the high-speed Jim Clark Esses.
Holding his nerve as both drivers pushed right to the limit, Cook went on to cement his 20th career triumph in the UK’s premier motor racing series, maintaining his stellar record of reaching the rostrum at Croft at least once every year since 2019 as he spearheaded a commanding Toyota one-two.
From eighth on the partially-reversed grid for the day’s finale and with the lowest hybrid deployment in the field by dint of his earlier success, the two-time BTCC Independents’ champion signed off with a seventh-place finish, with the third-highest points tally over the weekend consolidating his fifth position in the chase for the coveted crown.
In the sister Corolla, team-mate Aiden Moffat endured a more difficult time of things, with a loss of hydraulic pressure in FP1 resulting in a braking problem that left the Scot somewhat on the back foot. From 15th on the grid, Moffat gained a spot to wind up 14th on the hard tyres in the opener before progressing to tenth in race two on the softer compound, right on the tail of four-time title-winner Colin Turkington as he recorded his tenth top ten finish of the season to-date.
The no-holds-barred nature of the mid-pack action, however, left the 27-year-old Kirkcaldy native sporting some battle scars, and with only a short turnaround before race three, there was not enough time to fully check the car over.
Once the starting lights went out, it became apparent that the damage was unfortunately more than just cosmetic, so the decision was taken to retire from the final encounter in order to prevent any further issues. Moffat will head next to his home event at Knockhill in Scotland sitting 12th in the Drivers’ standings, while LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ remains third in the Teams’ table.
Christian Dick, Team Principal, LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ, said: “I must say, I think I gained a few grey hairs on Sunday when Josh and Rob went wheel-to-wheel for the lead at one of the fastest parts of the circuit, but being the experienced and skilful drivers that they are, there wasn’t so much as the slightest contact and they put on a magnificent display for the fans watching trackside and on TV.
“After all the hard work put in by everybody back at base during the mid-season break, to see two of our cars vying for victory like that was tremendously rewarding and really corroborated the steps we have taken with the Toyota. Croft is an excellent ‘test bed’ for new developments with its wide variety of corner types, and I think it’s safe to say the Corolla passed that test with flying colours.
“Josh was a class act as ever, and Aiden was desperately unlucky to have not just the brake issue in free practice but then also the damage that he picked up through no fault of his own in the races. He was right on Josh’s tail prior to having to stop in race three and all things being equal would have had a great chance of moving forward, but he is a fighter and will fight back – and he will hopefully be rewarded when we go to Knockhill next weekend.”
Josh Cook, Driver, LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ, said: “We’ve definitely found some pace over the summer break. Croft is a very difficult track – such a mixture of different challenges – but the Toyota felt mega and we had strong speed all weekend. Saturday didn’t quite go to plan – I think we really had a car to fight for the front row of the grid in qualifying – but with the way the championship regulations work, we got a second chance in race two and we seized that opportunity with both hands.
“Rob [Huff] could have made my life much harder but he didn’t, so huge thanks to him for that. Being a team-mate, you want to make sure you don’t do anything silly, and I knew where the strengths in both his and my set-up were so I had to think about that whilst driving around to figure out where I could capitalise. I was really pleased to not only take another win for myself but more importantly a one-two for Speedworks – that was fantastic.
“The bottom line is that we’re edging the Corolla into a window where it better suits my driving style and that in-turn allows me to extract more out of it, so now we need to keep on developing in the same direction. If we do that, we’ll be in with a shout.”
Aiden Moffat, Driver, LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ, said: “I love Croft – it’s a great track to drive and very on-the-edge – but we had a tough start to the weekend with the brake issues, which restricted our preparation time in practice and left us immediately on the back foot.
“The BTCC is so competitive that when you start further down the order, it’s very difficult to make up a lot of ground, but after getting the hard tyre out of the way in race one, the aim was to move forward in races two and three. That worked well enough in race two, but unfortunately we picked up some damage along the way that then scuppered our chances in race three.
“That was a real shame, as we had more hybrid available than everybody ahead of us on the grid and I was looking forward to really getting stuck in again and trying to fight my way through, but it is what it is and now we turn our focus to my home event at Knockhill, where hopefully my luck will finally change.”
