Photo: Jakob Ebrey

Colin Turkington: “There’s no shame in finishing second”

Colin Turkington insisted he was happy with a successful season for West Surrey Racing and BMW, despite missing out on a record-breaking fifth BTCC title at Brands Hatch.

Turkington took a slender lead over Ash Sutton into the final three races of the season but would ultimately be overhauled by the Laser Tools Racing man on a weekend where mixed weather conditions worked against the four-time champion.

The Northern Irishman would end the year 14 points down on Sutton in second spot, despite scoring more points than he had done in winning the title for the previous two seasons – and from three fewer races.

However, Turkington refused to be too downbeat at the conclusion of a challenging campaign against a backdrop of COVID-19, having helped WSR and BMW to win both the manufacturers’ and teams’ titles.

“In the end, Ash deserved the title,” he said. “We had equal pace during the season, but in the wet today, he just had the edge over us and the low grip conditions didn’t favour our car.

“I gave it my all from the start of the season to the finish and we couldn’t have tried harder as a team, so I’m proud of our efforts and to be second in this championship is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s a hard championship to win and you need things to go your way, so we can hold our heads high as we’ve had plenty of good weekends and many wins along the way.

“For us to win the manufacturers’ and teams’ title is reward for all the effort that has gone back in at base and the Team BMW guys have done a fantastic job throughout the season. We can take a few days off now before thinking about next year and fingers crossed I’ll be back again.”