Colin Turkington remains out front despite ‘bump in the road’

Colin Turkington remains the man to beat in the BTCC standings despite seeing his advantage at the top cut to six points at Thruxton.

Turkington had taken a 15 point lead into the weekend but found himself with work to do on race day after qualifying down in 15th place on the grid for the opening race.

The Northern Irishman was able to fight his way forwards to take tenth place and then repeated the feat in race two after battling back from a tricky start that saw him lose places on the run to the complex.

That resulted in second on the grid for the reverse grid finale, with Turkington taking the flag in second spot behind the Honda of Josh Cook to snare his eleventh podium of the campaign.

“It’s been a rescue mission today,” he admitted. “We were on the back foot from qualifying, but we knew the importance of getting the car inside the top ten, keeping scoring points and relying on the reversed grid. That’s exactly how it panned out too.

“We made the BMW faster all day and by race three, the car was the best it had been all weekend by a long way, so when there was a podium there for the taking, we had the pace to make it count.

“I’m pleased to leave Thruxton with the points I have when you consider where we were after qualifying. Everyone has a bump in the road in a championship like this but we’ve come through it unscathed and we’re still leading. I’ll go home pretty happy.”