Colin Turkington hopes for race day podium

Colin Turkington says his focus for race day is on trying to fight onto the podium after qualifying eighth on the grid for the opening BTCC race of the weekend at Thruxton.

Having shown solid pace in practice, the defending champion was the quickest rear-wheel drive car in the session despite carrying maximum ballast on his BMW 330i M Sport and was able to qualify ahead of main title rival Ash Sutton – who had to settle for eleventh spot.

The Northern Irishman will now hope to try and push forwards on race day tomorrow, with a big haul of points being the primary focus from the latest three races as the condensed season reaches the half-way stage.

“I’m pretty pleased with the performance today,” he said. “Of course I’d like to be starting higher up than the fourth row, but coming here with maximum ballast, we knew what we were up against.

“I’ve qualified faster than last year and the improvements to the car are clear; I could really push it. I definitely feel we maximised what was possible laptime-wise. Tomorrow should be better again and the hotter, the better for us. The BMW really looks after its tyres and over a race distance and that’s going to be a big factor in making sure we get three good points scores. A podium would be very nice.”