SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT
“I TRIED TO BE CLEVER. IT WAS A GOOD WAY TO GO ABOUT WINNING” COLIN TURKINGTON
IT WAS HARD FOR NEW CHAMPION COLIN Turkington to hold back his emotions as he gradually realised that he had landed his third BTCC crown.
There have been a lot of things going on in the background for the 36-year-old during 2018: the fights on the Tarmac have not been his biggest battle.
The Northern Irishman lost his mother Mavis in June and it had a profound effect, and even he admitted that he had found some relief in his on-track activities, saying that it gave him even more motivation to land the biggest prize.
“It has been tough this year on track and off track,” says Turkington, who also lifted the title in 2009 and ’14. “The biggest challenge has been off track. That is one of the reasons this championship has been so good for our family this year. It has given us something to focus on and smile about. Those things have been hard to come by in the last few months.”
Victories have also been hard to come by. There were 17 different winners over the course of the 30 races, and that means consistency has been the golden ticket: and if there is one driver on the grid who knows how to keep the tally ticking over, it’s Turkington. But that also means that the pressure was even greater.
“It was certainly intense,” says Turkington. “By a long way this has been the most intense championship I’ve been involved with. And as I’ve said many times, there is no magic.
“You’ve just got to keep working hard and fighting back. I’ve won one race and had 10 podiums but at no stage have I felt like I’ve had the fastest car.
This team hasn’t had a pole since 2015. I’ve tried to be clever. It was a good way to try and go about winning it.”
Now that the silverware is locked away, thoughts can turn to the future, but the new champion wants to wallow in his achievement for a while yet before turning his attentions to 2019.
“It’s so special to be there among the big names who have won three titles, but I know how much harder it’s going to be to win the next one,” adds Turkington.
“It could be even tougher, and I need to stop and have a think about it and think about how you go about winning it again because it’s harder and harder. First of all, though, I need a long break.”