BTC Racing’s Josh Cook says he will be going “all-out” to challenge for the 2019 British Touring Car Championship title during the season finale at Brands Hatch after what he described as a “hit-and-miss” qualifying session.
Cook currently sits 34 points adrift of standings leader Colin Turkington, and will start the opening race tmorrow behind BTC Racing team-mate Chris Smiley in eighth.
He told TouringCars.Net the timing of your fastest lap in changeable conditions during qualifying was “fairly crucial,” and also commented that he was surprised by the pace advantage of the BMWs, who fill three of the top four positions.
“I think when you did your time in the session was fairly crucial, we saw Turkington pop it in at the start and I think he bettered it, but the track was at its best right at the beginning,” said Cook.
“We didn’t get a chance to finish the lap because of the red flag. It was very hit and miss in terms of conditions – they were changing the whole time so you’d come round and it would be a lot wetter than the previous lap.
“That meant it was really hard to start piecing a lap together but I’m fairly happy.
“I don’t know where BMW got their pace from, that was a bit of a surprise really.
“It’s not usually their strong point in the wet, so it’s going to be a tough day tomorrow but we’ll see what we can do.”
Despite out-qualifying fellow FK8 Honda Civic racer and title rival Dan Cammish, Cook admits he has to “attack” in the trio of contests tomorrow to have a realistic shot at the title.
“The approach is to attack, just go all-out. We’ll see what we can do from where we are, but we’ve just got to go for it.”