Tough first weekend for Colin Turkington at Brands Hatch

Reigning champion Colin Turkington comes away from Brands Hatch sixth in the standings, with a best finish of third in the second race of the day, but the 33-year-old is still uncomfortable with his new ride at Team BMR, moving across to a new team and car after eight years’ experience with BMW.

Turkington qualified fourth on Saturday behind team-mates Aron Smith and Jason Plato in a close session at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, but lost ground at the start and fell behind the MG of Jack Goff and the fast-starting BMW of Rob Collard, but had good pace and secured fifth on the grid, which converted into third after troubles in the race for Collard and Plato.

In race three, set-up and incidents saw him drop down to 12th, which, not counting retirements, is the Northern Irishman’s worst result in the BTCC since Knockhill in 2008.

“Until the last race, we’re gradually improving the car and there’s more to come from me,” said Turkington to TouringCarTimes. “It’s a big step from what I’m used to. Race three was a disappointment, but overall I guess it was a positive weekend.

“We made quite a step in changing the car between race two and race three and that probably didn’t help. We’re in the early stages of developing the car. At the moment we’re not fine tuning, we’re sort of throwing things at it in-between races, so it’s good to get the first one out of the way.”