Photo: PSP Images

Colin Turkington narrowly misses pole at Snetterton with “difficult balance” on his Subaru

Colin Turkington missed out on taking a hat-trick of pole positions in the 2016 season, after qualifying 0.015 seconds behind the Honda of Gordon Shedden at Snetterton. The two-time champion said he says he was struggling with the balance of the car in the session, which was held in different conditions to the two free practice sessions.

Turkington emerged as the closest threat to Shedden in the Team BMR Subaru, the car which had taken pole position in the last two race meetings at Oulton Park and Croft. Despite showing a quick pace in qualifying which was almost half a second faster than his own pole position record from last year, the Northern Irishman says he was unhappy with the balance of his Subaru Levorg GT in qualifying.

“I’m pleased to be second, but I’d feel a bit happier in myself if I was more comfortable with the car,” said Turkington to TouringCarTimes. “It was a difficult session balance-wise. It’s probably the same for everybody with the track temperature going up a bit, but we were just struggling a wee bit for grip and balance.”

With regular championship rival Shedden starting ahead, and with the fast young guns of Adam Morgan and Tom Ingram behind, the 2009 and 2014 champion expects a difficult race, although has had little time to evaluate the handling of his competitors on Saturday.

“I’ve not been running around other cars much today so I don’t know what the strengths and weaknesses are between the cars,” he said to TouringCarTimes. “But from here on it, it’s a race, so we’ll do our best and try and get to the front.

“We’re lacking a bit in top speed, but hopefully it won’t be a race looking in the mirrors and we’ll have enough in the chassis to make the time up in the corners.”