After claiming a 29th career pole in the British Touring Car Championship at Croft this afternoon, Team BMW’s Colin Turkington is aiming to use his affinity for the Yorkshire circuit to kickstart his title bid.
Turkington rose impressively to lead the field in qualifying, clearing both knockout sessions with ease before posting a best effort of 1m21.072 seconds in the Quick Six Shootout, enough to earn him a seventh pole at Croft by almost two tenths of a second.
It’s a venue where the Northern Irishman has enjoyed plenty of success in seasons past – including 14 of his 69 BTCC victories – and the 42-year-old is hoping to lean on that record to help him make a dent in the 65-point gap to championship leader and WSR team-mate, Jake Hill.
“I need a good weekend, especially after Oulton Park where we lost a chunk of points,” explained Turkington.
“Croft has sort of been my patch, so if there was somewhere we would want to start the second half of the season it would be here. It was super difficult out there, it’s so hard to get the car perfect at every corner at Croft, particularly at the final sector. Team BMW gave me the car today, so I’m really pleased.”