TEAM BMW driver Colin Turkington has said he wants to “end the season on a high” after a costly retirement at Silverstone National ended his Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship title aspirations.
With only three races at the Brands Hatch GP track remaining, Turkington travels there at the beginning of next month trailing leader Jake Hill (MB Motorsport with Laser Tools Racing) by a 64-point margin.
Even if Turkington were to collect the bonus point on offer for being the fastest qualifier, win all three races, and bank the extra point for setting the quickest lap, he would still be two points adrift of Hill.
Even then, that would be an extremely tall order given how competitive the UK tin-top competition is.
Turkington, from the front row of the grid, was unable to keep hold of second place aboard his BMW 330e M Sport and ended Sunday’s opening 22-lap sprint back in fifth.
Hill was the first rival to get past him on the Wellington Straight, before the NAPA Racing UK duo of Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton repeated the trick on the same section.
It was a more assured display in Race Two by Turkington, the hybrid energy available to him proving the difference as he clawed his way from fifth to second place at the chequered flag behind Hill’s BMW.
Turkington’s move for the runner-up spot came on lap twelve by using the cutback at Luffield Corner to great effect, outmanoeuvring the Hyundai i30 Fastback N of Team Bristol Street Motors driver Tom Ingram.
The penultimate round of the season ended with Turkington’s BMW 330e M Sport getting beached in the gravel trap. Having twice lost time by running wide at Copse, the large volumes of standing water caught him out under braking for Becketts on the fourth lap, leading to the red flags being brought out.
“It was not the end to the day I wanted and in Race Three there was a lot of aquaplaning from the start, and it was impossible to keep the car on the road,” admitted the four-time champion from Portadown.
“Before that, it had been a brilliant day with fifth in Race One and then second in Race Two, but in Race Three there was so much standing water that it became an impossible job [to control the car].”
Although Turkington looks set to have to wait another year before getting his hands on a record-breaking fifth crown, he can still help BMW in the constructors’ title battle, which Ford provisionally tops on 725 – four more than the German manufacturer.
Hyundai is third on 620 points and Toyota fourth on 611.
He added: “We will head to Brands Hatch next month still firmly fighting for this year’s Manufacturers’ Championship and will be there to support Jake as well. Hopefully, we can end the season on a high.”
