TURKINGTON BOOSTED BY ENGINEER CONSISTENCY

Colin Turkington expresses his delight at fifth consecutive year with engineer Kevin Berry

Kevin Berry working with Turkington at Team BMW

Fifth consecutive year of the partnership

Turkington suggests they can get back to business straight away

As he returned to the driving seat of his BMW 125i M Sport yesterday, double Champion Colin Turkington had a very familiar voice on the radio. A ‘voice’ that has played a very important role in Turkington’s BTCC success of recent years; engineer Kevin Berry looked at ease at the Spanish circuit throughout the day, as the Team BMW driver commenced his first official test.

The pair first began working together with West Surrey Racing in 2013 as Berry played a pivotal role in designing and developing the new BMW 1 series. Turkington went on to claim 5 wins with the year 1 BMW and in 2014 went on to be a dominant force, clinching the crown at race 28 of 30.

Berry and Turkington then moved on to fledging outfit Team BMR for the following 2 seasons, developing the new Subaru Levorg into a race winning BTCC car that also went on to challenge for the title.Throughout these 4 years it was clear to see the technical relationship between them was one that many might never achieve throughout their career. Sharing a similar approach, mentality and passion; Turkington and Berry have proven their method is one of the most successful and efficient in the history of the series.

Insisting that it was important to continue this consistency in 2017 Turkington admitted he was very happy at the prospect of a fifth consecutive year with Berry.

“It was a huge relief to hear that Kevin was on board for this new season. He had me worried for a while! I am a firm believer in consistency and I also knew that Kevin was the only man for the job. His knowledge and expertise in engineering a Touring Car is second to none and I knew that we would waste no time in getting straight back to work. The BMW is a project that we are both familiar with and Kevin’s valuable leadership fills me with confidence for the season that lies ahead.”

COLIN TURKINGTON

“It was fantastic to get a full day of seat time yesterday to familiarise myself with the 1 series again and get back in the grove. In many ways, it feels like I have never been away from WSR and we have easily got back to business straight away. Fast Parcmotor Castelloli is an ideal test track for us with varying high and low speed corners. It is also very bumpy under breaking which is a great simulation for the circuit conditions we experience in the BTCC.

Yesterday Kevin and I were going through various Test Items on the programme that we just wouldn’t get the opportunity to do on a race weekend. The track and air temperatures are very similar to what we should expect next month at Brands, and the data we will have gathered by the end of the week should stand us in good stead come then.”

COLIN TURKINGTON

Colin returns to the BMW 1 series tomorrow and Friday for two further full days of testing.

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