West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington admitted he didn’t have the pace in his BMW 125i M Sport to make a move stick on race winner Jack Goff in the British Touring Car Championship season opener.
The double champion told TouringCars.Net he thoroughly enjoyed the race-long battle with Goff, but getting past the Honda proved too much of a challenge, leaving the Northern Irishman to start his campaign with a second-place finish.
“I would have enjoyed it more if I’d have come out on top,” said Turkington. “But I didn’t quite have the pace to pass and pull away and there was very few opportunities out there once you go off the more grippy outside line.”
Halfway through the race Turkington almost capitalised on a mistake from Goff, who ran wide at the final corner after getting sideways through McLaren.
“I tried to pass into clearways but there’s less grip on the inside so I couldn’t make that happen.
“But regardless I’m pleased – P2 is an excellent start.”
The Northern Irishman will carry 68 kg of success ballast into the second round of the championship later today, but believes the wet conditions will offset the full effect of the extra weight.
“We’ll cope as best we can. It’s always the way – there’s a bit less of an effect in these conditions but it never gets any easier so we’ll see if we can tune the car a little bit more now and get more out of it.”