Colin Turkington: “We just have to take it on the chin”

Colin Turkington admitted that he would have “just have to take it on the chin” after losing his lead in the BTCC standings at Thruxton.

The West Surrey Racing driver had taken a ten point lead into the weekend ahead of Ash Sutton and outqualified his rival by putting his BMW in eighth place on the grid for race one despite carrying maximum ballast.

The Northern Irishman was running ahead of Sutton on track when a rare mechanical issue forced him into the pits, with the team managing to resolve an an electrical problem that was causing the BMW to misfire and send him back out four laps down.

A battling drive to 13th followed in race two, with ninth in race three meaning he ends the weekend having dropped behind Sutton in the standings, and will go to Silverstone for the next round 16 points in arrears in the title race.

“You always expect a bump or two on the journey and this was one of them,” he said. “These things happen and nobody is to blame. We just have to take it on the chin, dust ourselves down and go again.

“To have an issue that was totally out of my control derail the weekend is a shame, but the race pace was good and I overtook a lot of cars in the second and third races. We just have to forget about this one, regroup and aim to get ourselves back in front at Silverstone.”