THIRSTY FOR MORE - Colin Turkington | 4 Time BTCC champion and Team BMW driver Colin Turkington. Currently driving for Team BMW in the 2020 British Touring Car Championship

TURKINGTON KEEN TO ‘KEEP THE MOMENTUM’ AS ANOTHER BTCC WEEKEND APPROACHES

THRUXTON – ROUNDS 7, 8 & 9

The British Touring Car Championship returns to ITV4 this weekend for the 7th, 8th and 9th races of the 2022 season.
Less than two weeks have passed since Colin Turkington claimed his first pole position, fastest lap and victory of the year last time out LIVE on ITV at Brands Hatch.
This time, it’s the Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire that’s set to host the next instalment of the hybrid powered action, the only venue where the Goodyear HARD compound tyre is used.
Colin Turkington currently sits joint 4th in the championship standings and is keen to keep the momentum from his recent fantastic form.
Most teams have already tested around the 2.4 mile circuit when the season launched back in April, so expect some super close competition.
Get your weekend planning into play: this Saturday LIVE from 3:15pm online and Sunday LIVE on ITV4 from 11am.
Scroll down to see who will have the most and least Hybrid power for qualifying and race 1.

The Team BMW driver has shown some incredible form of late

COLIN’S THOUGHTS

“I’ve had some fantastic results and shown really good so far, despite the rub of the green not going our way. I’ve been working harder than ever on my own performance, and my car feels a step forward from last year. We really showed this at Brands Hatch; I’ve never had a pole around the Indy circuit before, and our race 3 pace in the wet was unmatched. This all adds up to building confidence in decision making and a confident energy in the team; we head to Thruxton with a positive spring in our step. The competition is so close and every margin over the others is more crucial than ever. I’m hopeful we can settle into this momentum and keep pushing hard through to the summer break at the end of June.”

We tested at Thruxton with the rest of the grid back in April, it was much colder then and we were all still getting our heads around the Hybrid system.

“It will be interesting to see how much the extra power impacts the performances and where is best to utilise it. This circuit is already one of the higher speed venues that we visit, so there will be considerably more options to deploy than what we had at Brands. I’ll only have 4.5 seconds in qualifying, so will need to make that count!”

There’s been a great spark of interest in our series off the back of the ITV coverage and I hope we can put on another great show for those thirsty for more!

ITV showed the BTCC on it’s main flagship channel last time out with some great feedback

SCHEDULE

SATURDAY

Free Practice 1: 9:55am

Free Practice 2: 12:25pm

Qualifying: 3:20pm

SUNDAY

Race 1: 11:40am

Race 2: 2:40pm

Race 3: 5:20pm

Expect more bumper crowds this weekend as the BTCC returns less than 2 weeks from the previous event

BACK HOME TO ITV4

The 3rd event of the BTCC season returns to ITV4 for a full day of motorsport action, commencing at 11am right through to 6pm.

Colin currently sits equal 4th on points in the standings

HARD ON TYRES

Thruxton has a slightly more abrasive surface than other tracks requiring a harder compound tyre to be used by the BTCC cars. This is the only event whereby a different compound is in play. All cars will run the GOODYEAR HARD tyre for the duration of the weekend.

The BTCC cars will use a HARD compound tyre at Thruxton

HEM IN ACTION

The hybrid energy management system in use by the BTCC this season has replaced the old success ballast system. Those running in the top 10 of the championship will have less hybrid power to use than those from 11th back. It operates on a seconds-per-lap basis for qualifying and a number-of-laps basis for the races. Have a look below at the hybrid deployment rules for Thruxton qualifying and race 1. The results of race 1 and 2 will determine the hybrid on offer to the top 10 finishers of those races for races 2 and 3.

Colin currently sits joint 4th in the Championship so will have 4.5 seconds per lap of hybrid in qualifying and 9 laps of hybrid in race 1.

SEASON SO FAR

Re-cap on the previous two podium race weekends by clicking below!

Rounds 1, 2, 3 – Donington Park

Rounds 4, 5, 6 – Brands Hatch Indy

COLIN’S WINNING WAYS

Colin made a pledge to become more sustainable this season by reducing his carbon footprint. So far this year he has already removed 8.66 tonnes of CO2 via his Earthly Brazil nut concession and tree planting project. Colin added an additional 100 trees last week to celebrate his Brands Hatch race win.

Follow Colin’s Earthly progress by clicking here.

Colin has already removed over 8 tonnes of CO2 this year so far and counting

5 WEEKS – 9 RACES

May 28 / 29 – Thruxton – Rounds 7, 8, 9

June 11 / 12 – Oulton Park – Rounds 10, 11, 12

June 25 / 26 – Croft – Rounds 13, 14, 15

Competition is close this season and reliability will be key come the end

WIN A BMW MOTORSPORT CAP

For your chance to win a BMW Motorsport cap, simply share or retweet one of Colin’s facebook posts tagging Colin and BMW UK. One winner will be chosen at random between now and Qualifying on Saturday. Good luck!