Turkington stays at BMW

BTCC

Reigning champion Colin Turkington will be back in the British Touring Car Championship in 2019, and for the first time the three-time title winner will carry the #1 on a WSR BMW 125i M Sport.

The 36-year-old Northern Irishman took his maiden crown with WSR in 2009 before leaving the BTCC to pursue other drives. He won the championship again with WSR in ’14, but then carried the #1 to Team BMR to drive a Volkswagen in ’15.

Turkington took just one victory in the 2018 campaign but prevailed over rival Tom Ingram by 12 points in the final reckoning. “I think we just have to look for the small gains wherever we can to push ourselves forward,” said Turkington. “We will go through everything with a fine-toothed comb, and that includes the driver, to try and extract every bit of performance.”

If Turkington is champion this season, he will equal Andy Rouse’s all-time record of four BTCC crowns. “Winning the third title was great, but you start every year with the objective to win,” said Turkington. “The fire burns strong within me. Also, what is special is that we have all three titles to try and retain, with the drivers’, manufacturer-constructors’ crown and the teams’ title.”

Turkington and Tom Oliphant will drive the Team Bmw-entered cars, and they will be joined at WSR by Andrew Jordan in a Pirtek-supported version (below). The

2013 champion remains with the squad for a third season, and thinks he can build on his work from the ’18 campaign to match Turkington. “I am relaxed in the team and I work well with Colin,” said Jordan. “I’ve learned that you can’t be fastest all the time – even though it hurts because I want to be – but you have to take what you can from it and use that as an education.

“I’m really excited about the 2019 season. I think I’ve got my enjoyment of the sport back. I had some tough times in 2015, ’16 and ’17, but last year I got the spark again. I realised how much I love the job that I do.”