Colin Turkington: ‘We need to keep pushing and stay consistent’

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington is hoping his strong Oulton Park form will yield podiums and wins in this weekend’s British Touring Car Championship action in Cheshire.

Turkington has won ten times previously at Oulton Park, although he hasn’t stood on the top step of the podium in any of the previous three visits.

Last year, the Northern Irishman had already had a reasonable weekend in the opening two races, before his weekend ended in dramatic fashion with a big crash into the stricken car of Daniel Lloyd.

Although Turkington hasn’t won recently, he did take a double win in 2019 in the BMW 3 Series, and he is amongst the circuit’s most successful touring car racers.

The four-time champion heads into this weekend’s fifth event of the year 41 points from the top of the drivers’ standings – a deficit which is bigger than at the same stage last year, although he has actually amassed more points than at the equivalent time in 2022.

“I’m looking forward to Oulton Park,” said Turkington, who has won at Oulton Park in each of his four title-winning years. “It’s a track where we’ve won a lot of races in the past and where the balance and the traction of the rear-wheel-drive BMW has helped us more than at most other places.

“There’s also normally a good pocket of Northern Irish fans because it’s so easy to get to from there, so it feels more like a home race than anywhere else in the BTCC.

“We’ve started the season well and we come to Oulton with more points than we had at this point last year, but we need to keep pushing, try to improve on every level and stay consistent.

“Points are great, but podiums and wins are better so that’s the goal.”

WSR Team Principal Dick Bennetts is hoping for hot weather come race day on Sunday, due to the rear-wheel drive BMW’s tyre wear strengths.

“Oulton Park is a circuit at which we’ve done very well with BMWs in the past and one that gives us a far better chance of getting back onto the top step of the podium than Thruxton did,” added Bennetts.

“We’ve worked extremely hard since Thruxton to dive into the data with the drivers and engineers and work out where we can extract a bit more performance in both qualifying and race trim.

“We should be in pretty good shape, though we probably won’t know exactly how it will shake out until qualifying.

“The ‘Top Ten Showdown’ qualifying seems to have suited us quite well whenever it’s been used and if we have a hot day on Sunday, that will help us too as the BMW is extremely good on its tyres over a longer distance.”