Colin Turkington confident of early Subaru success

Colin Turkington is looking forward to returning to rear-wheel-drive with the Team BMR Subaru Levorg Sports Tourer and believes the car will be at the sharp end from the first round of the season.

Turkington will spearhead the new Subaru manufacturer outfit alongside Jason Plato, a project he believes will garner a sizeable following owing to the Japanese marque’s popularity.

“It’s really exciting news,” Turkington told TouringCarTimes. “I’m excited to be taking on a new project with such an iconic brand like Subaru. It’s the first time they’ve been involved in the BTCC and we have a lot of support already, hopefully we’ll be able to develop a bit of a cult following. I’m certainly looking forward to getting the car out on track and hopefully making it competitive from the beginning.”

The cars are currently in the process of being built and are expected to be complete near the season launch at Donington Park in March, leaving the team little time to test between the media day and the opening rounds at Brands Hatch.

“It will probably be ready sort of mid-late March,” continued Turkington. “I don’t think there’s any particular date in the diary, in or around media day I’d say would be a good guess depending on how things go. The guys are working hard back at base on the car, we’ve got the talent there to produce something good straight out of the box.

“You always want more time, you never have enough time but with the package that’s being put together we’re confident that we can be competitive from the beginning, and I think there’ll be a certain amount of people finding their feet again with the RML parts so it’s probably not a bad time to be building and developing a new car. I think we’ll be sitting at Brands Hatch with a lot of unknowns but we’ll just do our best and play our way into the championship as best we can.”

Team BMR’s new car also means a return to rear-wheel-drive for the two-time champion, who dominated the 2014 championship in a rear-wheel-drive BMW 125i M-Sport.

“It’s another new challenge,” said Turkington. “I enjoyed last year with the VW and the challenges that that brought, we were looking forward to building on that. As a driver it’s always good to be doing something different and sharpening the tools, I’ve had my best success in a RWD car so hopefully that can continue.”

Turkington also stated that it was a relief to have his drive confirmed at such a relatively early stage, compared to previous seasons.

“This time last year despite winning the championship I still didn’t know what I was going to be doing so it does allow you to prepare for the season better,” he said. “Although I don’t have a car to prepare in, there’s all the things that I can be doing, really excited about this season.”