It was a bittersweet ending to a title run for Colin Turkington at the British Touring Car Championship finale at Brands Hatch, after a close-fought title battle between the Team BMW driver and Subaru’s Ash Sutton went down to the final race of the season.
Turkington was still in contention from the start of the 30th race of the year, before unintentional contact from Mat Jackson on the exit of Graham Hill Bend forced the Northern Irishman to retire in the early stages, with broken right rear suspension halting his final efforts.
“We gave it everything and we fought to the end. I’m just disappointed for everybody in the team, although it’s still a great achievement to win the Manufacturers’ and Teams’ titles,” said the 35-year-old, who finished 21 points behind Sutton, who took the title in just his second season.
Turkington also showed that he was still not willing to give up after an impressive performance in the second race of the final weekend, having made his way to the top step of the podium from 15th.
“The guys made the right choice to go on wet tyres and we were making really good progress, but we were just unlucky with the way things unfolded.
“Mat wouldn’t even have known I was there. It was nobody’s fault – I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and the cards didn’t fall our way. What can I say? We gave it our best shot.”
WSR Team Principal Dick Bennetts admitted that he was “gutted” in the manner in which Turkington’s bid for a third BTCC title ended, but was very complimentary of the efforts of the team, who brought BMW their first Manufacturers’ title on the year of the Munich brand’s return in the series.
“Every member of the team can be very proud of what we’ve achieved and we are also extremely thankful to our partners, technical suppliers and sponsors, without whom none of this would have been possible,” he said, with the Sunbury-on-Thames based outfit using the new B48 engine to good use, also picking up the Team championship in the process.
“Colin’s drive in Race Two was incredible and the performances he and Rob have put on across the season have shown their quality again and again.”