WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
WSR’S switch to BMW 320si Super 2000 machinery for the 2007 BTCC paid dividends in 2009, when Colin Turkington triumphed to grab his first title in a final-round thriller against Fabrizio Giovanardi and Jason Plato. Still only 27, Turkington wanted to use that as a springboard to the World Touring Car Championship, but it proved difficult to raise a budget.
Eventually, a five-round campaign was pulled together. Turkington had already claimed two podiums at Brands Hatch, and one at Brno, when the Okayama round in Japan came around. In pouring rain, he finished second in the reversed-grid race to the works BMW of Augusto Farfus, but three weeks later Farfus was excluded for running an illegal gearbox. Turkington inherited victory, but he should have won it on the road anyway…
“It absolutely poured down, and we’d never run Yokohama wets,” says Bennetts. “We just changed the car to what we did with BTCC Dunlop wets, and out he went and we were quick.”
BMW’S Andy Priaulx still had a shot at the title, so WSR had agreed to help the works cars of Priaulx and Farfus if necessary. Sure enough, Turkington let Farfus through to lead, while they were shadowed by the Rml-run Chevrolet of eventual champion Yvan Muller. Then, with Priaulx now out of the race and title contention, a switcharound should have happened.
“Of course what happened then is this privateer spun, there were yellow flags and no overtaking on the last lap,” says Bennetts. “But apparently RML protested the works team’s six-speed ’box, and they were deleted from the results.”