HOW TURKINGTON PLANS TO STAYS AHEAD
Champion says line-up and calendar have thrown in tin-top curveballs. By
Full preview to the British Touring Car Championship season
Five wins and eight podiums was a bumper return for Colin Turkington last season, and it was enough for him to power his WSR BMW 330i M Sport to a record equalling four title. Despite that, it still came down to a final race showdown at Brands Hatch in October with team-mate Andrew Jordan, whose BMW had taken six wins, and Dan Cammish’s factory Honda Civic Type R.
The BMW was, undoubtedly, the benchmark car in 2019. That was remarkable, as the WSR team had burned the candle to complete its line-up of three machines in the build-up to the early April get-go. Jordan won on the car’s debut meeting.
It was evident that the rear-wheel-drive machine was pretty much at the top of its game. WSR had created almost the ultimate BTCC weapon. So that begs the question of how much further can it go as Turkington aims to smash Andy Rouse’s record and stand alone as a five-time title winner?
The Northern Irishman, knows that there are a few minor areas of improvement, and those are the ones that he and the team have set their sight on.
“There were a few circuits where maybe we weren’t as strong as others,” he says. “So, the challenge is to keep that level of consistency over all the tracks over the course of the nine races. I don’t know how much more pace we can actually put into the car but what we have been focusing on in testing is improving the driveability and instilling some driver confidence. You need to always drive the car to the maximum.
“We know we have a strong package and, when you get to that level, it is about focusing on the details and the tiny factions that actually add up to something. For us, there is not big chunks of lap times to be found. We know with all the testing and racing we do, it is easier to change a car and make it slower than it is faster. It is about trying to make those small incremental gains and that has been the focus.”
And the small details will be put under a stern test this year. The compact nature of the reworked schedule starts with a fearsome four race weekend in five over
August. That is a rapid-fire roster which puts everyone under more pressure than ever. Turkington knows it is about playing the longer game, even though that is tough to prioritise in the heat of battle.
“The biggest challenge will be for the teams and the mechanics,” says the 38-year-old. “It will be flat-out for the guys working on the cars. From the driver’s side, it is very easy to say it, but it is about having a long-term view of the season and a bit of sympathy for the boys and always trying to bring the car home in one piece. It has always been about consistently scoring points – however good or bad that points collection might be, it is about picking up what you can. From the driving side, it is important to be fully prepared going into each race weekend. Normally we have two to three weeks to prepare and do the homework, but that is cut down to six days or so, so we are going to have to work harder.”
The Team BMW man is known for his input away from the racetrack, with his diligent engineering reports always impressing team boss Dick Bennetts. While that work will be supercharged in 2020, it is something he is looking forward to. He will have a condensed period to reacquaint himself with the controls of the two-litre turbocharged car.
“It is nice to do the season in a slightly different way,” he says. “As race drivers, I always feel that we don’t actually do enough actual driving. Through the course of the normal season from April through to October, we have 10 race weekends and about four days of testing. We are supposed to be professional race drivers but we don’t do enough of it. It will be nice to feel like we are in the car almost every weekend. That is, for me, my happy place and so I am excited about that.”
Turkington refused to be drawn on who the major threats are this season. When the names of Honda’s Cammish and Speedworks Toyota man Tom
Ingram are proffered, he won’t pick out one individual.
“It could be one of the most unpredictable championships in recent seasons because none of us know the challenges that lay ahead,” Turkington says. “As much as you try to prepare, there are always surprises in there.”
Matt James