British Touring Car Championship Series Director Alan Gow has praised ‘class act’ Colin Turkington after the latter became the championship’s 60th Anniversary Champion.
In a year of celebration for the UK’s headline tin-top series, a record different 17 race winners stood atop the podium, but 22nd in the penultimate round for the Team BMW racer proved enough to secure a third title.
Speaking to TouringCars.net after the finale drew to a close at Brands Hatch, Gow praised Turkington’s consistent top-level performance across an action-packed campaign.
“There’s never been an undeserving Champion in the BTCC and Colin [Turkington] has shown he’s championship material all year – he might only have one race win but you’ve got to keep racking up the points.
“He’s a Champion; he knows how to do it, and he’s showed it. He’s a class act Colin, and he’s one of the great names of the BTCC.””
He also pointed out that, with so many cars capable of winning a single race in a highly-competitive formula, accruing enough points to become a BTCC Champion, whilst already tough, has moved onto a ‘different level’.
“It’s easier to win a race, because the cars are so close. You’ve got 24 cars, as we did here, covered by nine tenths of a second on a long lap – so the cars are so evenly matched, and you can get race wins.
“But to win a championship is a whole different level to winning a race.”
The series has previously announced plans to incorporate some hybrid energy technology in 2021 when the technical regulations next evolve, but after a vintage year, Gow believes there’s no reason to make any knee-jerk changes yet.
“Why would you want to change what we’ve got, it’s hard to top the great year we’ve had,” he said.
“There’s no reason to change anything, we’ve got such a fantastic formula and a fantastic championship, and you’re seeing the result of it.
“I think it’ll go down in history as one of the great championship years we’ve had.”
The 2019 British Touring Car Championship will begin at Brands Hatch once again over the 6 – 7 April.