Cook overcomes the elements for Silverstone podium double

• Toyota star scythes through the spray at ‘Home of British Motor Racing’

• LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ team-mate Moffat laments continued ill-fortune

• Speedworks-run Corolla GR Sport extends spectacular Silverstone success

Josh Cook increased his 2024 British Touring Car Championship podium count to eight at Silverstone last weekend (21-22 September), moving up a spot in the overall classification as he conquered the conditions to shine through the spray.
 
Fastest in his Q1 group in qualifying – around a circuit where the British-built, Speedworks Motorsport-prepared Toyota Corolla GR Sport has frequently excelled – the Bath-born ace advanced to the ‘Quick Six’ for the fifth time this season amongst the 20 high-calibre protagonists, going on to secure third on the grid in an increasingly wet session.
 
There was little change in the weather the following day. After having to give best to championship leader Jake Hill on the opening lap of the curtain-raising contest – with the rear wheel-drive cars exploiting their superior traction on the slippery track surface – Cook was defending fourth position from Dan Cammish and Daniel Rowbottom when the latter tagged him into a spin at Becketts that he did well to recover.
 
The delay dropped the two-time BTCC Independents’ champion down the order to eighth, from where he battled back to finish sixth, prior to going on a charge in front of the live ITV4 television cameras and a hardy trackside crowd in race two. With the bit between his teeth, the LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ star set about chasing down the leaders, and decisive passes on Cammish and Tom Ingram elevated him to third, where he stayed to the chequered flag.
 
Cook replicated that result in race three, although it was anything but a straightforward affair. From fourth on the partially-reversed grid, he was up to second when the red flags flew due to the deteriorating conditions, with puddles of standing water causing cars to aquaplane in all directions.
 
Once the rain had abated somewhat, the action resumed and while the 33-year-old was obliged to concede to a fired-up Ash Sutton, he thereafter consolidated his podium position. His points tally made him the event’s third-highest scorer, meaning he will go into next month’s Brands Hatch GP season finale still mathematically in contention to clinch the coveted Drivers’ crown in the UK’s premier motor racing series.
 
In the sister Corolla, team-mate Aiden Moffat endured a difficult start to the weekend, missing the entire second free practice session due to an engine change – and the Scot’s luck did not greatly improve from there. A transponder problem in qualifying left him without any hybrid deployment – a crucial factor around Silverstone’s short ‘National’ layout – and a frustrated 16th on the grid was the upshot.
 
Despite ongoing issues, Moffat dug deep to sneak a couple of points for 14th place in race one, but he could manage no better than 17th in race two – after which, a turbo issue was successfully diagnosed and rectified, transforming his Toyota’s performance. The 27-year-old Dalkeith native subsequently climbed up into the points again in the day’s finale, only for his ill-fortune to persist as he found himself unsighted in the spray and collected by a slowing car ahead, spelling an early bath.
 
Christian Dick, Team Principal, LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ, said:
 
“It’s fair to say we haven’t generally been blessed by good weather at BTCC events this year, but the conditions at Silverstone were amongst the most difficult that they come, and posed a real challenge for every single person in every single team. I’m proud of the way our guys and girls handled everything, and it was no less than they all deserved to come away with a couple of trophies for their efforts.
 
“Josh was, as ever, a class act, wringing everything he could out of the car come rain and shine and who knows, had he not been turned around in race one, he may even have ended up with three podiums rather than two. It’s testament to his speed, skill and racecraft that he is still in the title hunt going to Brands Hatch, and while it is the longest of long shots and would require a large slice of ill-fortune to befall some of his rivals, you can never rule anything out in the BTCC and I have no doubt he will give it his all.
 
“On much the same topic, I really don’t know what Aiden has done to warrant such rotten luck this year, but the poor guy simply can’t catch a break recently. It seemed that everything that could go wrong for him at Silverstone did go wrong, but we all know what he is capable of when things run smoothly and hopefully he will finally get a trouble-free weekend at Brands Hatch to show what he can do.”
 
Josh Cook, Driver, LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ, said:
 
“I’m pleased with how we progressed throughout the weekend. Qualifying provided the drama that everybody wanted, other than the drivers! The rain came down pretty quickly, and we had to take a bit of time to make sure we adjusted the ride-height for the conditions. That compromised our set-up work a little and the car didn’t feel quite as racy in the wet as it had done in the dry, but we reacted swiftly and the team did a mega job.
 
“We knew we could do well from third, and I was upbeat going into Sunday. Race one was obviously disappointing with the contact and I didn’t feel completely comfortable in the car either, but full credit to my engineer and crew for consistently improving it throughout the day.
 
“We’re still trying to work out what the Corolla needs in the wet, but we learnt a lot from the changes we made and while we weren’t quite as quick as the guys right at the front, we took positive steps that enabled me to push on and move forward.
 
“The start of race three was really sketchy! I managed to keep it on the circuit and make my way through, but much as we all love going sideways and sliding these cars around, it was just too dangerous to carry on and it was definitely the right call to stop and wait until some of the water had cleared. When you begin aquaplaning, there’s nothing you can do – there simply wasn’t any grip. After the re-start, I didn’t have as much hybrid as Ash [Sutton] so I couldn’t quite stick with him, but we’ve got to be happy to come away with two podiums at the end of the day.”
 
Aiden Moffat, Driver, LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ, said:
 
“The unluckiest season of my career continues! The engine change after FP1 meant we missed the whole of FP2, but everybody in the team put in a great effort to get my car ready again in time for qualifying, only for a transponder issue to then mean that instead of 15 seconds per lap, I had absolutely no hybrid around a track where it’s absolutely vital! That just killed our chances, even though the set-up felt good.
 
“We still didn’t have the power we should have had in races one and two, which made them really hard-going, so we changed the turbo for race three and it turned out that had been the issue all along! We also tweaked the set-up, and my Toyota felt brilliant but the visibility was the worst I’ve ever known in a race situation.
 
“Going into Copse Corner on lap four, I was on the outside trying to attack a couple of drivers on the inside when another car suddenly appeared out of the spray going slowly and I had nowhere to go, which ripped my front wheel off. That was such a shame, as the Corolla felt mint and I was looking forward to finally getting properly stuck in...”