Photo: PSP Images

Team BMW reveals unchanged line-up for 2018 campaign

The West Surrey Racing-run Team BMW outfit will field an unchanged line-up for the 2018 BTCC season after confirming it has re-signed both Colin Turkington and Rob Collard.

The pair helped secure both the Teams’ and Manufacturers’ titles last year whilst Turkington finished the year as runner-up to Ash Sutton in the Drivers’ title. Collard meanwhile remained in contention for the crown for much of the year after one of his strongest seasons to date before a heavy accident at Silverstone curtailed his campaign early.

Turkington will be embarking on his twelfth season with WSR and will be keen to add to the four wins he picked up in 2017, with the Northern Irish driver confident of challenging for top honours during the year ahead.

“I’m excited for the new season and delighted to be staying with Team BMW and WSR for another year,” he said. “This place feels like home to me, having raced here for eleven years already, and the environment is exactly what I need to get the best performance out of myself.

“I was bitterly disappointed to miss out on the Drivers’ Championship at the season finale last year and I’ll continue to put everything into winning the title this time around.

“The BMW 125i M Sport has won more titles than any other car in the past five years and the developments we’ve already tested for 2018 look like they’re going to make us even stronger, but we know that the competition won’t stand still so we’re expecting a tight battle.”

Collard meanwhile said he too was seeking to build on an impressive season last year having now fully recovered from his Silverstone accident.

“The 2017 season was my most competitive to date in the BTCC and had I not missed the final five races, I’m certain I would have been in with a very strong chance of being champion,” he said. “I’m fully recovered, have been training hard and can’t wait to get back behind the wheel of the BMW for the first test of the new year. This will be my ninth straight season with WSR and my eleventh in total.

“Over that time my performances have improved year-on-year and I’ve played a key role in several title-winning campaigns. The Drivers’ Championship is my goal for 2018, and with the team continuing to evolve the car, I’m confident of fighting at the front.”

As was the case in 2017, WSR will also field a third car for Andrew Jordan under the BMW Pirtek Racing banner.

“We’re very pleased to again be given the responsibility of representing BMW in the BTCC,” team boss Dick Bennetts said. “We won the Manufacturers’ title and made Team BMW Teams’ Champions in 2017, but now the target is to add another Drivers’ crown.

“In Colin, Rob and AJ, we have three extremely strong drivers who all won races last year and know what it takes to be a champion in this series, while in the BMW 125i M Sport, we have a car that’s undergone constant engineering development since 2013 and which has won six overall titles in the past five years.

“While the level of competitiveness in the BTCC seems to rise year-on-year, we’ve proved ourselves as consistent front-runners and again aim for silverware come the end of the season.”