Cook edged in second race
Josh Cook returned to British Touring Car Championship action for the sixth round at Snetterton. After qualifying Cook, fifth overall in the championship standings, was sixth fastest for his first race in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra despite an incident with team-mate Senna Proctor during the first free practice session. Cook’s first race started in wet conditions but despite this, he made a good start and by the end of the first lap moved ahead of Tom Ingram in his Toyota for fourth place, which he held on to until the finish. Second time out, Cook started from fourth with 48kg of ballast, and he also gambled on using slick tyres on a damp but drying track. He made a steady start and at the halfway stage as his tyres got to working temperature, he took third from Chris Smiley. Cook set the fastest lap on lap nine in a time of 2mins 00.32secs and a speed of 88.82mph. That saw him catch second placed Dan Cammish for a tenth lap pass, just as the safety car was deployed to give Cammish his place back. When the safety car returned to the pits, lap 12 of 14, Cook not only re-took Cammish for second but caught race leader Ashley Sutton and nearly took the victory, as the pair raced across the line and Sutton won by just 0.22secs from Cook. The third race of the day was the Diamond Double, celebrating 60 years of the BTCC, which replaced the reverse grid. The race was a 60 mile race no ballast, and double championship points. Cook was 11th fastest. The Bath speedster made a good start in the Diamond Double race and was in ninth place in the early stages when the safety car was deployed. Despite a light shower on part of the circuit, Cook was in a four-car dice for sixth which included former champion Colin Turkington. The victory went to Honda driver Matt Neal for his 63rd BTCC victory. Turkington and Josh Cook had a great wheel-to-wheel dice for sixth and seventh and crossed the line respectively.