Colin Turkington anticipating ‘one of the toughest seasons to-date’

Four-time Colin Turkington British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington says he is anticipating ‘one of the toughest seasons to-date’ as the BTCC prepares to kick off its new hybrid era at Donington Park this weekend.

Team BMW’s Turkington has been the runner-up in the championship for the past two seasons, but heads into the 2022 season with a degree of consistency on his side, thanks to knowing the BMW 330e M Sport and being in familiar Team BMW surroundings.

However, like the rest of the field, he faces the unknowns of the new hybrid boost system, which has relaced the championship success ballast system previous used in the BTCC.

Despite delivery of the system coming late in the pre-season, Turkington and Team BMW have been out extensively testing since, expressing cautious optimism about how they will fare come the deployment of the system in anger.

“We’ve covered so much ground since the curtain dropped on the 2021 season, and we’ve made considerable strides forward in our understanding of the hybrid system the past month,” said Turkington.

“It’s been a positive testing programme but still extremely limited as we get to grips with a brand new system.

“I imagine we’ll continue this steep learning curve the first few events which will create many challenges, but also opportunities.

“I’m really excited by the newness of this season and motivated by the level playing field it has created. It’s going to be one of the toughest seasons to-date, but I’m fired up for the challenge.”

Turkington has won eight times at Donington Park, including four times since BMW introduced the new 3-series in 2019. He made a rare mistake at the circuit last year when he spun in race two, before recovering and benefitting from the reverse grid for a race three win.

“Donington Park is an awesome circuit and a superb venue for the season opener. It’ll be fascinating to see how qualifying plays out and how the new system operates in the races as it makes it racing début.

“At this stage it’s impossible to know where we’ll be. I think we’re all keeping tight lipped about when and how is best to deploy the hybrid, but for sure it will be different for qualifying than it will be in racing conditions.”