Colin Turkington: “We’re still not quick enough to win the title”

Colin Turkington surged forward to fifth in the drivers’ championship after a successful weekend at Snetterton with a win, a second and a sixth place finish in the Team BMR Subaru Levorg GT, but the Northern Irishman still says the team need to find a further step to be able to challenge for the title.

Turkington overtook the Honda of Gordon Shedden in Race 1 to secure his third win of the season in the first race of the day, whilst dropping to second behind the Motorbase Ford of Mat Jackson in Race 2 to whilst laden with 75kg of success ballast.

Turkington then went on to finish sixth from seventh on the grid in Race 3, and now leaves Snetterton fifth in the championship, 34 points behind new points leader and former West Surrey Racing team-mate Rob Collard heading to Knockhill in two weeks’ time.

“It’s a really strong haul of points and I just did my best,” said Turkington to TouringCarTimes. “Race 3 was really tough with the discrepancy in straight-line speed, but there’s nothing I can about that so I just got the most points I could, so I’m happy.”

With chief rivals now saying the controversial boxer-engined Subaru Levorg and Colin Turkington are now the favourites to win the championship, despite a sluggish start to the season and a missed weekend at Thruxton, the 2009 and 2014 champion was not so sure.

“Certainly that’s the goal, but our car’s still not quick enough,” he said. “We need another step in performance to have a chance to challenge, so I’m not felling overconfident.”

“(The troubles for Tordoff and Shedden) maybe make the situation look a bit better for me. I’ll take the rough with the smooth, we had three good rounds.”