Colin Turkington: Has the flag finally dropped on career of British Touring Car Championship’s most successful driver?

IN life, there are no guarantees, and whether you are successful – or one of life’s has-beens – money does not discriminate.

On Friday, at around 5pm, both were brought sharply into focus when Colin Turkington announced the brakes were being applied with immediate effect to his long – and incredibly illustrious – association with the British Touring Car Championship.

For some time now, there have been rumours swirling around that he might not take his place on the grid with West Surrey Racing and Team BMW for 2025, yet to have it confirmed by the four-time champion and see it in writing in an emotion-laced open letter to fans still hit hard.

Hard for the simple fact he has become part of the British Touring Car Championship circus for so long now; to have its talisman around (566 race starts, 72 victories, 190 podiums, and 76 fastest laps and a triple Goodyear Wingfoot Award winner) feels not only odd – but wrong.

The Portadown native made it clear that, in his opinion, there was not one reason that could be blamed for him stepping away.

In stark contrast, Dick Bennetts – WSR’s founder, its team principal, and a close family friend to Turkington, wife Louise, and two sons Lewis and Adam – was more pointed. It boiled down to money – or, in this case, a distinct lack of it.

Despite all Turkington’s success, profile, and media appeal, it was not enough to get a deal over the line.

True, at 42 years of age, he is one of the sport’s elder statesmen, and despite some quarters suggesting he has peaked, and his best years are firmly in his rearview mirror, the displays he delivered last season in qualifying and throughout race day proved that such an argument is baseless.

If anything, Turkington epitomised the ‘like a fine wine’ mantra, and had there been a drive for 2025, he would have been more than capable of fighting for a record fifth crown.

Considering last week’s development, however, Turkington’s quest to write his name in lights and become the most decorated individual in the history of the tin top series is not over for another year – but quite possibly forever.

Being out of the cockpit for an entire year against fellow champions Jake Hill, Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram will leave him badly out of practice.

Naturally, efforts now turn to seeing him return to the competition in 2026, but judging by the comments Turkington made, he does not seem to be in any great rush to try and work through the matter in hand.

Instead, the time away should allow him to take stock and give something back to four-wheels, principally through tuition and steering the activities of their eldest boy Lewis who has been competing in autograss and has an eye on graduating into circuit racing.

Many will be disappointed by the news, though few are sure to be as crestfallen as Bennetts; 17 of Turkington’s 20 title assaults have been with cars run by the Kiwi’s Sunbury-based team.

“We are disappointed to be losing the services of Colin Turkington ahead of the 2025 British Touring Car Championship season,” he said.

“Colin has come a long way since I first met him in late 2001 just after he had won the Fiesta Championship as a 19-year-old and is, quite simply, the most successful British Touring Car Championship driver of his generation.”  

Together, he and WSR have created the greatest partnership in the history of the British Touring Car Championship with four overall championship titles, four Independents’ crowns, and 61 victories of a career total of 72 achieved together in a variety of car makes and models.

Five victories in 2024 and sealing the Goodyear Wingfoot Award as the best qualifier showed that he remains one of the British Touring Car Championship’s elite drivers in all aspects.

Bennetts added: “It was always our intention to continue our partnership with Colin into a ninth consecutive season and a nineteenth campaign in total. However, despite our best efforts, commercial realities have meant that this has simply not been possible.

“As Colin has said himself, we should not be sad it is over, but instead be happy it happened at all.”

With no other team in a position to offer Turkington a car so close to the 2025 campaign kicking off at Donington Park at the end of April due to them already having their line-ups locked in place, and the potential none could give him a drive for 2026 on a basis comparable with his status, fans should brace themselves for the stark reality the flag might have finally dropped on his British Touring Car Championship career.