Toyota’s Josh Cook scored a controlled victory in the British Touring Car Championship qualifying race at Thruxton, ahead of Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram and NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton.

Cook had been quickest of all in the earlier qualifying session, and the local racer duly delivered in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying race, scoring a lights-to-flag win which was punctuated by a brief safety car intervention.

That safety car was required at the end of the opening lap when Team VERTU’s Ricky Collard crawled to a halt at the Complex due to an issue with his Hyundai.

Racing resumed on lap four, and at the front Cook initially had to defend from Ingram, before ultimately pulling clear of the two-time champion.

Further back, dramas at the restart saw Lewis Selby hit the rear of Charles Rainford’s BMW, sending the WSR driver spinning on the start-finish straight, whilst newcomer Lewis Gilbert was also caught up in the melee, suffering heavy front-end damage that ended his race.

But at the front, Cook was untouchable and won by a second ahead of Ingram, whilst Sutton took third. The latter had masterfully moved from seventh on the grid up to fourth at the start, including a move on Adam Morgan and Senna Proctor which saw Sutton gain two places at the Complex.

Cammish finished just behind his team-mate in fourth, having lost out to Sutton at Seagrave on lap five, with Proctor claiming fifth on his BTCC return.

Laser Tools Racing’s Gordon Shedden was sixth, ahead of Plato Racing duo Morgan and Daniel Rowbottom. Rowbottom had actually got ahead of Morgan on lap eight with a strong run into the first corner, only to go wide at Church corner three laps later and lose the place again.

The top ten was completed by Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble and Restart Racing’s James Dorlin.