Josh Cook coolly claims lights-to-flag opening race win at Thruxton

Toyota’s Josh Cook scored his 11^th victory at Thruxton in the opening British Touring Car Championship race on Sunday, beating NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton by less than a second.

Cook, who had dominated Saturday’s proceedings by taking pole in qualifying followed by victory in the qualifying race, came under the most pressure at the start.

Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram, along with Sutton, made stronger starts than Cook, but battling between the title rivals allowed Cook some breathing space on the exit of the Complex.

Sutton then went outside Ingram at Noble to take second, which left the door open for team-mate Dan Cammish to also get through. Slight contact between Cammish and Ingram forced the latter wide onto the grass, and the Hyundai driver dropped to ninth.

However at the front, Cook managed to extend a 1.4-second lead by the end of the fourth lap, and for the remainder of the race he managed that gap ahead of Sutton, benefitting from more TOCA Turbo Boost [TTB] than his rival to claim a 22^nd victory in the BTCC.

Sutton took second and further extended his championship lead with his tenth podium of the season – incredibly meaning the four-time champion has only failed to finish either first or second in three races so far in 2026.

Plato Racing’s Daniel Rowbottom completed the podium, marking a first outright rostrum result for the fledgling team. The Mercedes driver had started from seventh on the grid, but a strong start and being in the right place at the right time enabled him to move up to third by the end of the opening lap, and he held station for the remainder of the race.

Substitute driver Senna Proctor took fourth in the second-best NAPA Ford, ahead of Ingram in fifth, the latter having fought his way back to sixth by lap six before overtaking Cammish for fifth through the complex and into Seagrave corner on lap ten.

Plato Racing’s Adam Morgan was sixth, one of his best results of the season, ahead of Cammish in seventh, the latter losing out to the Mercedes driver five laps from the finish into the chicane.

Mikey Doble was the leading Power Maxed Racing driver in eighth, with the Audi racer also the top Independent, with the top ten originally completed by Restart Racing duo James Dorlin and Chris Smiley. However, Smiley was later given a one-place penalty for gaining an unfair advantage.

That penalty promoted Laser Tools Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith into tenth, with Smiley in 11th, whilst team-mate Gordon Shedden finished in last having had to make an unscheduled pitstop early on.

Team VERTU’s Ricky Collard was initially given a ten-second time penalty for exceeding track limits, but this was rescinded after the race, leaving him in 14^th behind team-mate Tom Chilton.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:40 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	66	M		Josh COOK	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	20:42.956	1:16.178	1
2	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	16	0.653	1:16.665	3
3	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	16	3.422	1:16.351	7
4	18	M		Senna PROCTOR	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	16	6.334	1:16.666	5
5	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	16	7.005	1:16.493	2
6	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	16	8.451	1:16.766	6
7	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	16	13.797	1:16.640	4
8	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	16	14.533	1:17.402	9
9	132	I		James DORLIN	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	16	15.925	1:17.013	10
10	50	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	23.102	1:17.186	11
11	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	16	22.262	1:17.221	12
12	2	I		Daryl DE LEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	16	24.104	1:17.358	15
13	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	16	24.248	1:16.889	18
14	11	M		Ricky COLLARD	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	16	24.487	1:17.514	22
15	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	16	25.211	1:17.226	13
16	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	16	25.744	1:17.182	14
17	99	I		Charles RAINFORD	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	16	26.208	1:17.751	17
18	15	M		Lewis SELBY	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	16	27.172	1:17.911	16
19	7	M		Ryan BENSLEY	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	46.843	1:18.732	20
20	28	M		Nicolas HAMILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	16	48.098	1:18.617	19
21	29	I		Lewis GILBERT	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	16	48.390	1:18.813	21
22	52	I		Gordon SHEDDEN	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	1:08.970	1:16.779	8