Colin Turkington believes he’s in “good shape” heading into the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton tomorrow [20th May], after qualifying second in his BMW 125i M Sport.
Turkington, who set his quickest-ever lap time around the 2.4 mile Hampshire circuit with a 1:15.847, would have broken the all-time qualifying lap record, if not for Matt Neal’s sublime effort to seize pole position.
Similarly hot conditions are anticipated for tomorrows triple-header, meaning Turkington’s BMW, in theory, will be able to generate optimum temperature in its brakes and tyres faster.
With no success ballast on board, too, the double champion will stand a fighting chance of jumping Neal’s Honda Civic Type R FK8 off the line.
Speaking to TouringCars.net shortly after the session, the Northern Irishman paid tribute to the handling of the car and believes, based on race simulation runs done in free practice, both he and the team are in good shape.
“I’m more than happy to qualify second, that’s the perfect position for us,” commented Turkington.
“It puts us in a good position for tomorrow, the handling of the BMW has been fantastic all day and we’ve nudged it in the right direction, so I’m more than pleased.
“It’s the fastest lap time I’ve ever done around here, and it felt like it, which is nice.
““For sure, I’ll try and get the best start I can and see where that takes us. It’s important to pick up some points too, so we’ll just judge the strategy as we go.
“I’m more than happy with the race runs I did earlier, so we’re in good shape.”
Turkington also believes the heat will be more of a factor tomorrow during race distances than it was today, with the focus tonight on engineering a car that will, first and foremost, make it through the 16-lap encounter unscathed.
“I don’t think the heat made a huge difference today, it’s more how it affects us over a race distance,” he added.
“Getting to the end of the race tomorrow is the most important thing, so we’ll think long and hard about that tonight.”
The opening race of the weekend is scheduled to get underway at 12:15 tomorrow.