Josh Cook was frustrated after a painful race two exit at Croft but remained upbeat about his form after an impressive start to life in the British Touring Car Championship.
Cook had been on course for a 12th-place finish in Sunday’s second race, before he ploughed into the Turn 1 barriers unassisted on the penultimate tour.
A mammoth repair effort from Power Maxed Racing meant that the Chevrolet Cruze driver was able to partake in the day’s final race, which Cook duly rewarded with a drive to 15th and the final point, complementing an 11th-place in race one.
Speaking to TouringCars.Net, the 24 year-old was full of praise for his team after mending his car in less than two hours.
“Credit to the team, they’ve done it twice now – they did it to Dave’s subframe at Oulton Park and it shows the team is good,” said Cook. “They react well and don’t stand around waiting for things to happen.
“I think it’s a shame that we got no points in race two because had we brought it home we would have come away with another Jack Sears Trophy but that’s the way it goes.”
Speaking of his race two crash, Cook said he remained unsure of the root cause of the incident, during which he sustained mild whiplash.
“We don’t know [how it happened],” he said. “It could have been a slow puncture, something like that, but I hit the brakes and nothing happened.
“I’d just gone through the last corner and been pushed the whole way around it by Hunter Abbott and it creased all my boot flooring.
“I got to the end of the straight hit the brakes but nothing happened, came off and then hit them again – I had to hit them so hard – there was a little lock, I had to turn into the corner and committed to it but basically I could not stop the car.
“I went in sideways and the car went up which hurt my neck but I’m okay.”
Despite that disappointment, the Bristolian lies 13th in the championship standings – two places above his more experience team-mate Dave Newsham – having amassed 54 points from the opening five rounds.
Reflecting on his first five half-season as a BTCC driver, Cook felt that he had proved his worth after a string of impressive performances.
“It’s been really good – It’s gone real fast,” he said. “There was a steep learning curve but I think I’ve shown what I’m made of with my performance at Donington and at Thruxton [where] we had some good races.
“We’ve learnt a lot on the setup this weekend too and we are moving forward even though our positions didn’t show it. I’m looking forward to doing a test before Snetterton and hopefully we can continue to move forward.
“I think we’ve shown that the pace is in the car and in me – the new tyre that we’ve had to put on has knocked us back a bit but we’ll be back up there before too long I promise you.”