Cook extends championship lead after Oulton Park

SV Racing’s Josh Cook extended his lead in the 2014 Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup at the stunning Oulton Park International circuit in Cheshire during rounds 7 and 8 of the championship, claiming a podium finish in both races.

After a disappointing qualifying session, where he could only manage 4^th in both his fastest and second fastest times, Cook was determined to make a good start in the first race, which getting ahead of Westbourne Motorsport’s James Colburn in the opening lap. A brief safety car period brought the pack back together again, and a spin from Ant Whorton-Eales on the restart meant Cook was able to manoeuvre around Lee Pattison and avoid collecting his team mate in the process, putting him in the lead which he hung on to for the rest of the race, despite intense pressure from Pattison behind.

Race two on Sunday proved to be a much closer affair. Starting 4^th on the grid again, Cook pushed early on in the race to get ahead of Pattison, slotting into third behind his SV Racing team mate Whorton-Eales, who in the process had dropped down from pole position after a blistering getaway from Colburn from the off. With overtaking opportunities coming few and far between, Cook failed to squeeze past Whorton-Eales, and eventually had to settle for third place.

Speaking after the race, Cook was clearly frustrated with the result from the second race, despite clinching a double podium finish. “I could be happier” he explained, “the car was so fast that I could have gone for another win really, but we’ll take the third place”.  He added “we really had strong pace, I’m not sure what the fastest lap was but I’m sure we could have challenged for it if I’d have had some space, but at the same time it’s a great result for the KX guys, to take a 2-3 in this race and my win from yesterday, we’ve just got to look after the championship points now and move onto Croft”.

A strong points haul over his rivals meant that Cook extended his lead at the top of the championship to 32 points ahead of James Colburn, but admitted that it’s too early to think about yet. “I don’t want to concentrate too much on the championship just yet, it was just then in that race I knew I had to settle knowing that I was in a comfortable position on the scoreboard”. Cook seemed pleased with the weekend overall though, and spoke highly of the racing and atmosphere around Oulton Park. “It’s been a good weekend all round, it’s just a shame we couldn’t capitalise on our pure pace in that last race. The crowd this weekend has been awesome, I think it’s record crowds again, and you could tell; everywhere there’s just loads of people which is great for us as drivers, without these guys we wouldn’t be here racing. As for the track itself the amount of corners and undulations is awesome, it’s my favourite track and I’m made up to get a first and a third here this weekend”.

Looking ahead to Croft, Cook acknowledged that it will be tough to call what could happen in the next rounds at the Yorkshire circuit; “Anything can happen, nobody will know really until qualifying starts and we’ll see where everybody stands but, again, we’ll be looking to try and get a couple of podiums so we’ll see how we get on”.

Written and interviewed by Alan Faulkner

Photo credit: Alan Faulkner