Cook holds off Cammish for maiden BTCC win

Power Maxed TAG Racing's Josh Cook has claimed his first ever British Touring Car Championship race victory after superbly controlling the opening race of the day at Donington Park.

The Vauxhall Astra driver led every lap of the opening race, but only after holding off a stern challenge from BTC Norlin Racing's Chris Smiley throughout first third of the lap.

Cook retained his position at the head of the field after enjoying a good getaway off the line, but came under severe pressure from the Honda of Smiley after the Ulsterman attempted to snatch the lead heading through Craner curves.

Once Cook established his authority at the front, the remainder of the pack set about demoting the hard-tyre running Honda of Smiley, who quickly fell down to sixth.

It was BTCC rookie Dan Cammish who looked most likely to launch an assault on Cook's race lead. While Cammish did threaten to eat into the Vauxhall's race lead, Cook always had an answer for the Team Dynamics driver and subsequently stretched his advantage back out to an eventual 3.4s winning margin.

Second place was still Cammish's best result in only his second weekend in the series, while Laser Tools Racing's Aiden completed the podium just two-seconds back from the factory Honda in third.

Brett Smith was also a career best fourth for WIX Racing as James Coles finished in fifth for Motorbase Performance. 

BTC Norlin Racing's Smiley eventually dropped down to seventh, behind the hard charging Honda of Matt Neal, who rose up the grid from 17th to an impressive sixth place finish.

Senna Proctor finished in eighth but may find himself under fire from the race stewards after the Vauxhall driver appeared to tip Team BMW's Colin Turkington into a spin early in the race at the Old Hairpin.

Turkington managed to recover his out of control BMW 125i M Sport and scythed his way back into the top-ten behind the Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes A-Class of Tom Oliphant in ninth.