Turkington: “I know how big the challenge is going to be”

Colin Turkington is back for a full season drive in 2011 after only doing selected races in 2010. The 2009 BTCC champion has joined Flash Engineering for the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship this year and TouringCarTimes met up with the Northern Irishman for his thoughts ahead of the season.
“I know how big the challenge is going to be this year,” said Turkington to TouringCarTimes.

Turkington is going to do his first test on Swedish soil with his new team on the 4th of April at Knutstorp.

“I really feel to get behind the wheel to start testing and learn the Scandinavian tracks. Last time I drove competitively was at Macau in November, so I am really looking forward to this,” said Turkington.

The 28-year-old has never before driven on any of the Scandinavian tracks and is preparing him self ahead of the first tests and races with simracing and videos.

“I have watched videos of the STCC 2010 and I have been around the circuits on the computer. These things are obviously good help to learn, but there is no substitute to actually be on the tracks and actually testing,” said Turkington.

Flash Engineering and Turkington has planned a total of eight test days ahead of the season premiere at Jyllandsringen in Denmark on the 22/23rd April.

“I’m excited to go to these tracks for the first time and take on the task of learning them properly. I do not have a lot of time for this, only a couple of test days, which is not much compared to the experience of the Scandinavian drivers. But I intend to lean heavily on Jan’s [team mate] experience and hope that he can get me up to speed quickly,” said Turkington.

Turkington has been joined by experienced engineer John Morton at Flash Engineering. The two has worked together for the past two seasons.

“I’m delighted to be able to continue my working relationship with John. It is important for me that John is engineer for my car. I know how big the challenge is going to be this year and I know that John is able to get the best out of the car for me. That combined with the experience of Flash Engineering makes me feel confident ahead of the season,” said Turkington.

Turkington is going to face stiff opposition from drivers such as James Thompson, Rickard Rydell and Richard Göransson in the STCC. And Turkington is cautious in his expectations ahead of the season.

“It is difficult to say at this point as I need more time on the tracks. But I want to start of well and keep finishing the races. Then there are a lot of strong drivers and of what I have seen from the videos the level of racing is really high in Scandinavia. I am looking forward to racing against them and I am aiming for podium finishes, that is a realistic target,” said Turkington.