Colin Turkington says that qualifying on pole for Sunday’s opening British Touring Car Championship race is ‘the first part of the job done’ as he seeks to help stable-mate Jake Hill in his championship bid.
Turkington was just 0.036 seconds quicker than EXCLER8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram in the final part of qualifying on Saturday, posting a new qualifying record despite admitting he didn’t quite feel that he got the ideal lap together.
Nonetheless, with series leader Hill’s rivals all starting behind Turkington, he says the first part of the job in helping his WSR colleague has been completed.
“It was important for me to get the car up there ahead of the main protagonists – i.e. everybody that Jake’s fighting,” said Turkington.
“It’s great to be on pole, but I’ve put together better laps than that. I completed the lap and thought there’s just a few little corners where I didn’t quite get it bang on, but it was obviously good enough!
“It gives us a really good place to start from tomorrow and everybody behind is going to be gunning for me but I’d rather be starting pole and trying to dictate things than be the one chasing, so it’s the first part of the job done.”
Four-time champion Turkington also had a few words of advice for Hill before the opening race on Sunday.
“You never lose the nervousness and anxiousness before racing, before the qualifying session. You’re in the back of the truck with your head in your hands thinking ‘how’s this going to go?’.
“And this applies to Jake – the beauty is, once you get in the car and put the helmet on, all the external noise goes away, so that’s what he’ll be looking forward to tomorrow, just getting in the car.
“The hardest bit is when you’re milling around before the race and everybody’s asking how you’re feeling.
“My job will be pretty much the same – I’ll just have to go out there and race. The best thing I can do is win the race – that helps everybody.
“We’ll see where we are at the end of lap one and adjust the strategy from there.”