Colin Turkington: ‘We’ve given it our all this year’

Colin Turkington helped Team BMW to a record sixth consecutive British Touring Car Championship manufacturers’ title at Brands Hatch last weekend, whilst the Northern Irishman had to settle for second himself in the drivers’ championship.

Turkington went into the weekend 32 points behind Ash Sutton in the title race, and that deficit ultimately proved to be too much to overcome.

Having qualified in eighth on Saturday, two places behind his title rival, Turkington made a modest gain of one place in race one to finish immediately behind Sutton, opening up the gap further.

In race two, Turkington progressed to fourth at the chequered flag, two places ahead of Sutton, but it was not enough to prevent the Laser Tools Racing driver securing a third drivers’ title.

Race three proved to be a disappointment for Turkington, as he was forced off the track at Graham Hill bend on the second lap, leading to broken suspension off the circuit and his only retirement of the season.

Turkington, 39, knew that it would be a long shot to claim the title, and he was matter-of-fact about finishing as the runner-up for the second successive season.

“We had good pace in [race two] – we were quicker than Ash – but it’s been the story of our season, we’ve been there or thereabouts, but we just missed the last bit,” said Turkington.

“It was always a long shot coming into the weekend, so I was realistic in my expectations. It was going to take a terrible weekend for Ash, but that obviously hasn’t happened and hasn’t happened in a long time.

“It’s a tough, tough championship to win and you’ve got to be realistic. You’ve got to work hard at it and be dedicated to it.

“As a team we’ve given it our all this year. It’s a hard one to win every year. I’ve been fortunate four times, so I’m still waiting on the fifth.

“We’ve made history today for BMW in the manufacturers’ championship, which is a great thing to be a part of for myself and the team.

“My target this weekend was to win the drivers’ championship, but it wasn’t to be this time.

“We did everything we could, got the maximum from the BMW in races one and two with the ballast we had, but it was always going to be a tall order because of the way the points were coming into the weekend.

“We’ve won races this year, shown what we were capable of and we can walk away knowing we did the best job we possibly could.”

WSR Team Principal Dick Bennetts paid tribute to BMW, who have supported the team since the start of the 2017 season.

“We’ll always remember 2021 as the year we helped BMW make history as the first winner of six consecutive manufacturers’ championships,” added Bennetts.

“It’s an honour to represent BMW and on behalf of WSR I’d like to thank BMW UK for their incredible support of our team over a number of years.

“We’ve secured second place in the drivers’ championship with Colin, won five races, led a lot of laps and had all three of our drivers finish on the podium.”