Despite taking another step towards being in title contention at Snetterton, Colin Turkington believes that his BMR team need to take another step forward in the British Touring Car Championship.
The Northern Irishman won the opening race at Snetterton thanks to a well-timed pass on pole-man Gordon Shedden, before going on to add a second-place finish to his name in race two.
In an eventful race three Turkington was able to take home solid points with sixth, meaning that he moves up to fifth overall in the drivers’ championship standings, having been the best-performing driver over the past three meetings, where he has not finished lower than seventh.
“It’s a really good step forward for us, it’s a really strong haul of points this weekend,” said Turkington to TouringCars.Net. “We’re obviously moving in the right direction, but we still need more pace to be able to actually challenge.
“We’re really lacking in straight-line speed compared to the others we’re racing against, so if we can make another step then we have a chance, but that was really difficult today to get those results.
“We’ve got the chassis working really well and we’re making gains each time out.”
Having once again taken to qualifying without success ballast, Turkington believes that picking up a tow from another competitor helped him to also secure pole position – something which he knows will be more challenging now that he will go into qualifying at Knockhill with extra weight.
“I lucked into the slipstream in qualifying which helped,” added the Subaru driver. “Once you’re up there you’ve got track position for the rest of the day.
“Obviously I’ve been able to qualify really well in these past three events because I’ve had no weight on, so it’s going to make it a bit tougher for us [at the next event].”
“Each weekend is a completely new set of circumstances. I’ve been able to qualify really well in these last three events with no ballast on, and now I’m going to have some, so it could get tricky from hereon in.
“We know what we need to work on, but it’s difficult to say what we can do from here because it’s one race at a time. I’m leaving here very pleased.”