Series leader Colin Turkington hails “top weekend”

Series leader Colin Turkington hailed a “top weekend” at Snetterton, but says he’s writing nobody off in the title race at this stage of the season.

Reigning champion Andrew Jordan now 78 points behind the West Surrey Racing driver in fourth place, but the Northern Irishman says it’s still too early to describe the situation as a three-way fight.

Subject to the stewards inquiry over his last race clash with Matt Neal, Turkington now leads Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden by 23 points, and Triple Eight’s Jason Plato by 43 points.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Turkington said: “That was a really strong day. Any time you finish on the podium three times is a top weekend. We probably didn’t expect that based on last year, but we have a completely different package based on last year.

“We have just been consistent at every event. A front-wheel drive car has won every race this weekend, which we probably expected, but it’s nice to still be in the mix.

“Jason was probably the quickest guy here this weekend, but we made a jump with the car in that second race and I could sit with him. I just didn’t quite have the pace to get past. But I had the fastest lap, which shows we’re moving forward.”

The incident with Neal has seen a rare trip to the stewards for Turkington.

Giving his view on the incident, he said: “It was one of the many racing incidents in that race. Matt appeared to stop quite early and caught me out. I swerved to avoid him and I just tagged the rear.

“I couldn’t get out of his way quick enough. There was no malice involved.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, he added: “I’m not that confident to say it’s a three-horse race now. I know how quickly it can turn around in the BTCC, so it’s still too early to start writing people off.”