Photo: Mediaempire.se

Colin Turkington to race at Donington Park

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2009 British Touring Car Champion Colin Turkington will join the grid at next round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship at Donington Park on July 16th-17th for Wiechers-Sport.

The appearance is a one-off, as Turkington will be filling in for Stefano D’Aste who’s just rejoined the team, as the Italian has other commitments in the GT4 European Cup.

Turkington is currently racing in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship for BMW team Flash Engineering, and currently lies sixth in the championship.

“We have a big break now in Scandinavia and this opportunity came up in the last minute,” said Turkington to TouringCarTimes.

The Northern Irishman has not raced in the UK since July last year when he claimed two podium finishes at Brands Hatch for West Surrey Racing.

“I am looking forward to drive in the UK and it is going to be good to be back for the British fans,” said Turkington.

Turkington is keeping his expectations in check ahead of his return to the WTCC, which will now be in the new specification 1.6 litre turbocharged BMW 320 TC of Wiechers-Sport, and not the normally aspirated BMW 320si which he has been racing since 2007 with West Surrey Racing and now Flash Engineering.

“It is difficult to know what my expectations are for the weekend. I had some strong performances in the WTCC last year, but it could be a bit more tricky this time with a new team and a new configuration of the car,” said Turkington.

“I have raced at Donington many times and hopefully I can use that experience to my advantage. But on the other hand, there are a lot of drivers in the WTCC that are from the UK or have raced a lot in the UK in the past like Yvan Muller, Alain Menu and even Robert Dahlgren. It is going to be an interesting race weekend, that is for sure.”

Whether there will be any more WTCC outings for Turkington this season is not yet clear.

“At the moment it is just this one, I haven’t looked at any other races. This race suits me as the STCC programme is on summer break. My main focus for this season is at STCC with Flash Engineering,” said Turkington.

By Neil Hudson & Johan Meissner