Colin Turkington shocked to land first Subaru pole position

Team BMR’s Colin Turkington admitted it was a surprise to land a first pole for the new Subaru Levorg at Oulton Park, a result which exceeded both his and his team’s expectations.

Turkington had shown strong form throughout the earlier free practice sessions, but had set a top four start as the ceiling of his ambitions for qualifying.

He beat this in some style, and will line up ahead of the equally impressive Dan Lloyd in the Eurotech Racing Honda Civic for the first race tomorrow.

Asked by TouringCarTimes if he thought pole was possible, Turkington said: “No, not at all. I thought after the test that we’d made a good step forward with the chassis and the engine. I’ve been generally qualifying around 13th, so thought if we could get top four or five that would be our step.

“It all came together for me in that session. We’ve improved the car through the day and the chassis is working really well. I’m surprised to be on pole, that’s all I can say!”

Turkington and the team enjoyed a productive two-day test at Pembrey in the run-up to the weekend, and the double champion said this had played a big part in his improved form.

“I think it’s time in the seat, that’s a big part of it. Test days are so valuable. It means you can dial it in quicker during free practice,” he said.

“Track time has been restricted and it still feels like a new car. But the more we work with it the better we will get.”

Despite his pace today, Turkington is less certain about his prospects on raceday. Asked how he thought he would fare, he said: “No idea! We haven’t done any long runs, in all honesty. We just focused on tuning the car.

“It is good over two or three laps and generally if you’re in balance at the beginning, you maintain balance.”