Dick Bennetts: “Colin has lifted his game so much”

West Surrey Racing boss Dick Bennetts was full of praise for his new champion Colin Turkington, describing his performance in 2014 as a “masterclass.”

A third place in race one at Brands Hatch secured a second driver’s title for Turkington, and also gave his West Surrey Racing team a clean sweep of four titles.

Bennetts also revealed that he had to ask Rob Collard to slow down during the race, as he almost took fastest lap away from Turkington – which would have meant the title fight continuing to race two.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Bennetts said: “He’s just fantastic. We know we’ve got a good car, but Colin’s just lifted his game so much. He’s so professional, and is one of the cleanest drivers out there, if not the cleanest.

“He sorts out people trying to make it hard for him, takes it in his stride and works out what to do.

“You know what the BTCC’s like. The biggest worry today was that someone tagged him in race one, and put him in the armco. If he’s in the armco and you can’t fix it, all those things are going through your head.

“We had a chat before the race, and Col just said ‘I’ll do my normal thing’.

“We had to tell Rob twice to slow down, as he was about to take fastest lap off Col. That would have meant the championship would have gone to race two. We were saying ‘Rob, Rob, back off’ and he didn’t know why!”

Bennetts said the titles were just reward for the work the team has carried out on the BMW 125i, which made its debut in the series at the start of last season.

He said: “We didn’t have time to do meaningful testing before season one. We hadn’t touched the aero at all. It was the winter development, and the development through this year.

“Now the car’s in a sweet spot, you can keep it in there, it’s fantastic.”

Asked if he would be enjoying the rest of the day, Bennetts added: “Hopefully, and more so tonight!”