Colin Turkington will return to the World Touring Car Championship for the next round at Donington Park it has been confirmed. The 29-year-old will race a BMW 320 TC for German team Wiechers-Sport, replacing Stefano D’Aste who had completed a one-off deal to race for the team last time out at Porto.
Turkington, who is currently racing in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, last drove in the WTCC in selected rounds in 2010 when he took his first race win in Japan.
“I am delighted with this opportunity,” said Turkington. “It’s great to be back racing in front of my British fans on such a fantastic circuit like Donington Park. I have raced there many times in a BMW but this will be my first experience with the new 1.6 turbo engine. I’m really excited to see how this performs and I’m confident we can deliver a strong performance.”
Wiechers-Sport have had to seek a driver to replace D’Aste for the British rounds of the championship as the Italian had prior commitments. Team manager Dominik Greiner was particularly pleased to have secured the services of such a talented driver as Turkington.
“I’m happy we signed Colin for the British event,” said Greiner. “He knows the track very well and I’m confident that with him we may continue on our positive upward trend that began last week in Porto with Stefano D’Aste who was leading a WTCC race for the first time in the team’s history.”
Turkington is currently sixth in the Scandinavian championship, having taken three podiums so far for Flash Engineering.