Colin Turkington enjoys his first weekend in the Superstars Series

2009 British Touring Car champion and World Touring Car Championship race winner Colin Turkington had a challenging but enjoyable experience in the Superstars Series at Donington Park, despite driving in the unfavoured BMW M3 at the weekend.

After qualifying sixth, Turkington had moved up to fifth in the first race and was the best placed of the BMW drivers behind the factory Audi and Mercedes cars, before he was knocked into the gravel at McLeans by one of the BMW regulars.

In race two, starting from tenth, the 31-year-old worked his way forwards, despite a heavy knock at the start from Dominico Schiattarella’s Chevrolet, which saw the Northern Irishman heading into the first corner at Redgate on the grass off the side of the track.

Turkington made his way up to fifth position, passing Schiatterella’s Chevrolet Lumina, Andrea Bacci’s Mercedes and finally Mauro Trentin’s BMW, before a suspension failure on the final lap saw Trentin able to retake fifth, but Turkington was still able to grab sixth position at the chequered flag just a few tenths ahead of the Mercedes of Roberto Papini.

“The car was much better than race one, but I lost a lot of time at the beginning of the race trying to pass (Schiattarella’s) car, which looked about 10mph quicker on the straights,” Turkington said to TouringCarTimes.

“On the penultimate lap, the right-rear suspension broke, so I was just trying to bring it home. Fifth would have been nice, but I was happy to finish the race and get the experience.”

Reflecting on his first run in the Italian-based Superstars Series championship, Turkington added:
“In any championship you need to be the right car. Certainly Donington doesn’t suit the BMW, I think this championship is probably a lot of fun if you’re in the right car, but I still enjoyed myself, it’s always good to keep driving, it keeps you in the groove, I would come back and do it again.”