Reigning champion Colin Turkington admitted he was “very happy” to secure second position in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Knockhill despite being unable to find away past race winner Ash Sutton.
The four-time champion headed the second row of the grid for race one at the 1.27-mile Scottish circuit, and utilised his rear-wheel-drive traction to leapfrog Jake Hill at the start of the encounter.
Hill immediately fought back which allowed polesitter Sutton to escape at the front, before a safety car to retrieve Josh Cook’s stricken Honda Civic from the entry to the chicane nullified Sutton’s advantage.
When the race resumed on lap nine Turkington set about pressurising Sutton for the lead, but told ITV the Infiniti racer was able to pull enough of an advantage through the middle sector that he could not find the “perfect position” to challenge for the win.
“It’s nice to get race one up and running and a good result in the bag,” said Turkington. “My car had very good pace in that race, but Ash would stretch his legs a bit through the middle sector and then I would catch him at the end.
“So I was never really in the perfect position to mount an attack, but also you’re thinking it’s race one of the day, so it’s not about throwing caution to the wind.
“It’s about tucking a result away and build through the rest of the day. I’m very happy, the BMW again was very good around Knockhill, I think we did a super job to get it to P3 in qualifying yesterday. It gave us a great platform for the rest of today.”
Questioned whether he deliberately dropped back to work together with Sutton as Hill battled with Tom Ingram and Rory Butcher behind, Turkington admitted he was constantly pushing but was wary of being overambitious towards the end of the race.
“I was pushing all the time and I could see the guys behind were scrapping, that’s why we edged away,” he explained.
“I was keen to try and mount more of an attack but it’s difficult at the end of the race when oversteer is building and the brake pedal is starting to feel a bit long it’s very easy to be overambitious.
“I did my usual thing and hopefully we can keep moving forward.”
By virtue of Sutton’s win and fastest lap the gap between the two title protagonists now sits at just 13 points, but Turkington will be slightly lighter heading into the second contest at 13:30 BST.
“It’s a swing, I lose six kilos and Ash puts on six kilos so that’s a 12 swing. The level of this series – it’s so competitive that these details matter – 12 kilos can make a difference, so I’m hoping it does!”