Josh Cook rounded out the 2024 British Touring Car Championship campaign claiming his ninth podium finish for LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ at Brands Hatch, enabling the team to head off into the winter break with ‘heads held high’.
Unfortunately for Cook, the curtain-raising contest would not last long, as a puncture sent him squirreling into the side of Ashley Sutton at Druids on the opening tour, with Sutton in-turn collecting Tom Ingram. The damage to the British-built, Speedworks Motorsport-prepared Toyota Corolla GR Sport was too great to continue. Moffat would similarly be forced out by a puncture just past mid-distance after climbing as high as sixth.
From the tail-end of the grid, the LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ duo worked in unison in race two, with Cook briefly holding fastest lap as they scythed their way through the field in front of the live ITV4 television cameras and capacity trackside audience.
They overtook Tom Chilton on lap nine in a crowd-pleasing, three-wide tussle that lasted several corners before the Toyota pair definitively made the move stick, going on to pass Árón Taylor-Smith before the chequered flag in seventh and eighth places, with Cook marginally ahead.
The reverse grid draw favoured one but not the other, putting the West Country star on pole position for the weekend’s finale. Cook determinedly kept hard-charging four-time champion Sutton at bay until lap six, subsequently conceding second to eventual 2024 champion Jake Hill following a slide, holding firm to deservedly reach the rostrum in third, as he concluded the campaign sixth in the Drivers’ classification.
Moffat wound up ninth courtesy of a solid display, leaving the 28-year-old Dalkeith native 13th in the end-of-season standings, as LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ secured fourth in the Teams’ table.
Christian Dick, Team Principal, LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ, said: “It’s always satisfying to finish the final race of the season on the podium, as it gives everybody a real spring in their step and some momentum to carry into the winter – and Josh set the result up with another excellent qualifying performance at Brands Hatch to advance to the ‘Quick Six’ and line up on the second row of the grid.
“The incident at the start of Sunday threatened to derail our plan somewhat – and for both drivers to be afflicted by punctures in race one was particularly unfortunate. Josh was merely a passenger after his car snapped out of control and there was nothing he could do to avoid the contact, but all the guys and girls in the team worked super-hard to get the boys out again for race two, and Josh and Aiden rewarded them with a fantastic fight through the field.
“That earned Josh pole for the reversed grid finale, and while we didn’t quite have enough to hold on for the win, he drove a superb race to bring home a trophy for third, with Aiden similarly putting in a strong performance to seal a second consecutive top ten finish and end the season on a high. An enormous ‘thank you’ to every single member of the team for all of their stellar efforts this year.”
Josh Cook, Driver, LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ, said: “We felt in a decent place from the outset at Brands, and from fourth on the grid, I went into Sunday aiming to have some fun, but the puncture in race one pitched the car out of control and there was nothing I could do to catch it; as soon as I hit the brakes, the rears just locked and sent me round and it was unfortunate that we caught Ash [Sutton] and Tom [Ingram].
“We had a really good second race from the back; that was a strong drive from Aiden and myself as we worked together to fight our way through. We wanted to give ourselves the best possible opportunity for the reversed grid draw, which we obviously got, and I gave it a good go again in race three. We didn’t quite have enough in the end, but I didn’t go down without a fight.
“We know our car isn’t the outright quickest in the wet, but I love conditions like that and I just hustled it as hard as I could. I tried to make it really difficult for Ash, but it was clear he was much faster and I was pleased to finish third considering how the day had begun.
“I think overall, we can be proud of the job we’ve done and particularly the progress we’ve made. Since Oulton Park, we’ve been very, very strong and in the mix every single weekend – if the season had started there, the championship table would have looked very different!
“Ultimately, we didn’t produce enough earlier in the year, and the BTCC is so fiercely competitive that it’s difficult to claw back lost ground, but I’m proud of the consistent performance we’ve shown every weekend from Oulton onwards and how we’ve worked as a team. When the chips have been down, we’ve always dug deep, and I think we can walk away from this season with our heads held high.”
Aiden Moffat, Driver, LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ, said: “We had some good pace over the weekend at Brands. In hindsight, we should have put four new tyres on in the second part of qualifying; we tried sticking with the same rears as they were already up to temperature, but it just upset the balance. Still, 11th on the grid was a decent position and we knew we could race from there.
“We were sitting eighth on the medium tyre in race one and coming back at the guys ahead when we picked up the puncture, which was disappointing. Josh and I then had fun working together in race two, while race three was the closest we’ve had the car in the wet all year.
“Looking back overall, the season began with so much promise, from the speed we showed in winter testing to the win first time out at Donington Park, and we were in the top five in the championship for a little while, but then everything seemed to fall apart. We had issues that kept us off the podium at Brands Indy and Oulton Park, and at Donington GP, we twice came charging from the back of the grid up into the top ten only to be taken out on both occasions!
“I’m never one to give up and I always try my best – every time I jump in a car, I give it my all, which is the least I owe to my sponsors and everybody in the team who works so hard – but given the pace we started out with back in the spring, the way the season has subsequently played out has obviously been very frustrating. That’s just how it goes sometimes – that’s racing – and it was good to at least sign off with a couple of solid top ten results. Now, we’ll go away to enjoy the winter break and regroup.”
