Colin Turkington closes in on half century

Colin Turkington is now within one win of becoming only the fourth driver in the long history of the BTCC to reach 50 race wins after securing victory in the opening race of the weekend at Oulton Park.

The defending champion led from start-to-finish to secure his third win of the campaign in the new BMW 330i M Sport – meaning he already has two more wins than in last season’s title-winning campaign.

The WSR driver now has 49 wins to his name and will start the second race from pole as he seeks to follow Jason Plato, Matt Neal and Andy Rouse in passing a half century of wins.

“I’ve been working on my starts but it was a tough race after that,” he said. “The car was always on the move with the weight onboard and there was no stage where I felt I could hold back anything; it was flat out all the way to the finish.

“Dan [Cammish] was quicker than me in the hairpin but then I could gap him again at the chicane. After the safety car, I had to work to get the gap again but the 3 Series was a fantastic car to drive again and it’s great to get another win.

“I didn’t think we would win coming here with the weight but qualifying at the front gave us a better chance. We’ll work to try and find more speed for race two and I think it’ll be a bit of a war.”

Having been unable to challenge Turkington for the win, second-placed Cammish admitted that the BMW had been simply too quick.

“What more can I do?” he said. “Colin just has a gear I can’t go to – maybe he has a seventh ratio or something. I gave it absolutely everything but we just don’t have enough to get on top of that BMW.

“I’m happy to get P2 and enjoyed the battle with Andrew [Jordan] at the start, and that set up the race. To be fair, even if I had been able to catch Colin it would have been hard to pass him round here and whilst we’re not gaining on him in the points, I’m making up ground on the others.”