Max Cook scored his first ever Bennetts British Superbike Championship podium at his home round at Thruxton for the Completely Motorbikes Kawasaki team in his 49th race as he held off the chasing pack to score second place.
Cook had started from the Omologato Pole position in race two after his rapid lap time in the opening race of the weekend and he went on to lead the pack, until he made a small error and Ryan Vickers seized his opportunity to close in the final stages. Cook had held off Danny Kent to take second and in doing so celebrate a debut podium in the series.
Cook said: “Thruxton was an unreal weekend and I think I am finally coming down from it now! I still can’t believe I got my first BSB podium. I think that race, I knew from Friday that the soft tyre was suited for me; I thought it made the bike easier to ride and it felt good. I knew it would be a fast race but I didn’t expect to be on pole for race two, but that made it easier too as I could stay out of trouble and set my own race. That was amazing and it made all the difference.
“I know what I need to work on next time – and that is to improve my qualifying as that does a lot for me in the race. I was just managing the whole race, I was surprised as well that nobody came past me sooner to be fair, so I knew I had a bit of a gap. Where I made the mistake into the Complex, I could hear bikes behind me, only at that part of the track as I knew that was where I was weak, and people seemed to overtake me.
“On the penultimate lap, I took a different line and where I was on the brakes a bit heavier, the engine braking was quite strong and I backed it in all the way to the apex and with the lack of rear grip at that point, I just went sideways.
“I went passed the apex and was lucky not to crash and to have more people that Ryan overtake me. I was lucky to stay on and even luckier to only drop back to second. To hang onto it was awesome and it was unreal to have a first podium and now we are looking forward to Cadwell Park.”