Turkington set for Chinese test after his British title triumph

COLIN Turkington has had no time to rest on his laurels.

Shortly after securing his third British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch on Sunday, he flew off to the Far East where he will make his debut in the Chinese version of the saloon car series this weekend.

The British champion from Portadown will switch from his title-winning BMW to take over from Andre Couto behind the wheel of Volkswagen Lamando GTSs on the street circuit at Wuhan, a city of over 10 million in central China.

It will be the first of two appearances for the SAIC VW333 Racing team as an international wildcard entry. He will also race at the recently completed Zhejiang circuit at the end of the month.

Turkington (above) has been drafted in to help support Volkswagen’s Manufacturers’ Championship challenge alongside regulars Rodolfo Avila, Zhang Zhen Dong and Yang Fan.

As he got to know the team and walked the track for the first time, Turkington posted on his Facebook page: “It has been a crazy few days but a lot of fun.”

Meanwhile, Jari-Matti Latvala, Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ogier shared the fastest time in the short shakedown stage ahead of the start to Wales Rally GB.

The Toyota of Latvala and the Fords of Evans, last year’s winner, and world champion Ogier were joint quickest on two minutes 0.1 seconds, just a 10th of a second ahead of Craig Breen’s Citroen.