Cook romps to race two victory and extends BTCC points lead

Rich Energy BTC Racing's Josh Cook has romped to his second British Touring Car Championship race victory of the day after beating Jake Hill for the second race in succession at Thruxton.

As was the case in race one, Cook once again lost the lead off the line to the fast-starting BMW of Hill.

However, Cook also very nearly lost second position to defending champion Ash Sutton, only for the Honda driver to sail around the outside of the Ford Focus at Campbell corner to retake second.

Predictably, Cook wasn't finished there and the BTC Racing driver performed a near miraculous move around the outside of race leader Hill at the final chicane to reclaim the lead of the race by the end of the opening lap.

In a near mirror image of race one, Cook was able to build a comfortable buffer between himself and Hill, but the BMW began to home back in on the Honda at the halfway stage of the race.

But no matter how close Hill got to Cook, the Honda driver always seemed to have an answer as he maintained his control over proceedings.

Win number nine was the reward for Cook's consistency and a healthy championship lead ahead of Hill in second position.

NAPA Racing's Sutton ensured the podium order remained the same as it was from race one with another strong result in third ahead of Team BMW's Colin Turkington in fourth.

Just as Hill began to close in Cook midway through the race, Turkington threatened to do the same to Sutton, but was unable to make any real impression on his advisory.

Team Dynamics Honda's Dan Rowbottom led home Adam Morgan in fifth and sixth, while two-time champion Jason Plato recovered from a slow start to finish in seventh.

At times, Plato was the quickest driver on the circuit, but the 97-time race winner left himself with too much work to do over four-seconds behind the BMW of Morgan after passing Dan Lloyd for seventh halfway through the race.

Tom Ingram charged through the field from 21st position and demoted his EXCELR8 Hyundai team mate Lloyd a position further down the order to ninth in the closing stages of the race. 

Ash Hand completed the top-ten order ahead of three-time champion Gordon Shedden in tenth and eleventh.