Colin Turkington: ‘Being out of the title fight isn’t a shock to me’

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington admits that it ‘isn’t a shock’ to him to be out of contention for the British Touring Car Championship title heading to next month’s finale, despite claiming a fourth win of the year at Silverstone.

Turkington is now 105 points adrift of championship leader Ashley Sutton, with the Northern Irishman sitting fourth overall in the standings on 293 points.

The four-time champion had gone into the weekend with only a slim chance of keeping his drivers’ championship hopes alive, but a race one retirement effectively put paid to this small chances.

Having qualified in second, just 0.012 seconds from pole, to equal the team’s best qualifying performance of the year, Turkington was hit by Josh Cook, in turn nudged by another driver, on the opening lap of the wet first race, resulting in suspension damage that required mid-race repairs.

From the back of the field in race two, Turkington surged forward, gaining 18 places on his way to eighth.

With a fifth-place starting position for the partially reversed final race, the 41-year-old was up to third at the start, before quickly taking the lead within a couple of laps when the race resumed after a safety car intervention.

Despite a difficult start to the day, Turkington was pleased to reward the team’s efforts with his 67^th BTCC win and BMW’s 150^th in the championship.

“I’m so pleased to reward everyone for sticking with it today after the disappointment of race one,” said Turkington. “Seeing the happy faces in parc ferme made my weekend.

“It was a tough start to the day because you put so much into the buildup and doing all the work in qualifying to get the front row, and it all falls away on lap one.

“It was a difficult position to be in with the weather and ultimately, we made the wrong call as the rain returned.

“We’ve had a fair few of those sinking stomach moments this year, but it was important to dust myself down from there and attack the rest of the day. The results after that were a shot in the arm.

“The car was the best it’s been in race three, and I was able to stay in control of the race despite a rapid Tom Ingram in my mirrors.

“What a great way to finish with such a milestone win for BMW. Ever since we switched to the BMW 3 Series E90 in 2007 we’ve always had a potent package in the BTCC and had a great run of success.

“We’re mathematically out of the title fight now, but this isn’t a shock to me. I intend to push hard to the end and enjoy the finale!”