Colin Turkington: “No pressure to get first pole”

Colin Turkington says he did not feel under any pressure to get his maiden pole position for Team BMR as he guided the Volkswagen CC to the top spot in qualifying at Donington Park.

The reigning champion beat Gordon Shedden and the hotly-tipped Jason Plato to pole by less than a tenth of a second, but he still feels he has more to give the more he gets to know the car.

“Getting pole isn’t something I’ve thought too much about or felt under pressure to do,” Turkington told TouringCarTimes. “We thought potentially the VW could be quick at Donington but it hasn’t been easy, we’ve been a bit shy of the pace all through free practice but we’ve moved the car in the right direction and it’s just about getting the car tuned to my liking. It’s obviously a different beast to what I’m used to. It’s about me getting disciplined to the new style of driving and the more practice I’ll get the better I’ll be at it.”

Turkington could only manage fourth in both FP1 and FP2, both times over half a second behind team-mate Jason Plato who dominated both sessions.

“I knew there was more to come [from free practice],” explained Turkington. “We were very much testing in free practice and I knew there was more left in the car and me. It wasn’t too much of a concern, there was always a bit more to come from qualifying, ultimately I didn’t think I could go that fast, that’s about six or seven tenths quicker than I’d done up to that point but in qualifying sometimes I can find that extra pace, it was just one of those days.”

Going in to the race Turkington will carry 33kgs of ballast in to race one, but he feels that this won’t be too much of a hindrance to his challenge for the top step once the lights go out.

“My only issue will be my right foot and me managing it,” Turkington said to TouringCarTimes. “It’s not something I’m really considering a a negative, the guys around me are carrying some weight as well, so its not a problem. The key is three strong races. I want to win that’s why I’m here. We did the best job we could today and I’ll need to manage things well tomorrow but certainly that’s the focus from where I’m starting to try and get across the line first, if I don’t I’m going to want to be finishing strongly three times.”