TURKINGTON TRIUMPHS AT CROFT
HARD TYRE HERO CLAIMS 66TH BTCC VICTORY TO RESTART 2023 SEASON
- Colin Turkington claimed his 66th BTCC career victory yesterday, (Sunday 30th July) in a dominant race 3 display at Croft circuit.
- The Team BMW driver started on pole position before going on to secure a lights-to-flag win, collecting fastest lap along the way and notching his 180th BTCC podium.
- It was a day of changeable weather at the North Yorkshire circuit, but all three BTCC races went ahead in the dry, as drivers raced a set of soft, medium and hard compound Goodyear tyres.
- Turkington set up his points-picking race day with a P5 start following Saturday’s qualifying session. The 4-time champ kept his down in races 1 and 2 picking up a 6th and 7th place finish.
- This 41 points haul has edged the BMW driver into 3rd position in the championship standings, 34 points off the leader with a hefty 12 more races still to come.
- Colin returned home on Sunday night delighted with his race 3 hard tyre pace, admitting he didn’t think he would be able hold off the FWD chargers behind him.
HEAR FROM COLIN
“It’s such an important win… and feels so good! I really didn’t think it was on the cards. The first lap was the critical moment because I knew I had to keep Josh [Cook] and Tom [Ingram] behind me, they’re super-quick and super-aggressive off the line on us.
But honestly, on the green flag lap I thought I was a dead man – the track felt so slick from all the oil spillages and clear up – I was not feeling any grip at all.
I was so glad to see the safety car come out and it gave me a chance to really work the fronts – we’d been sitting on the grid for a very long time with the delay. But once it went in, I had the pace from the off.
Tom was applying the pressure in the early stages of the race but I could see where he was quick and I felt like I had the legs, I was pleased we could maintain the pace on the hard tyre. That’s two events on the bounce where we’ve won on the hard so it looks like we’ve got on top of what used to be our Achilles heel.
“A big well done to Team BMW, we grafted really hard for that one today and kept working for a step forward despite it feeling impossible to go forwards. Races are getting harder to win so it feels so good to be back on the top step at Croft.”
RESULTS
Qualifying: P5
Race 1: P6
Race 2: P7
Race 3: 1st + fastest lap
Championship position: 3rd
WATCH IT BACK!
Head to ITVX and watch back the winning moment!
GALLERY
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