Team BMW head to the legendary Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit this weekend aiming to maintain their status as leaders of the British Touring Car Championship.
Pole position, a race win and a second-place finish at Donington Park last weekend made for a commanding start to Colin Turkington’s title defence, while a podium finish for team-mate Tom Oliphant made it his best-ever start to a BTCC season.
“It feels unusual to be going to the GP circuit at Brands Hatch in the summer and not to have a championship situation in the forefront of our minds,” commented Dick Bennetts, Team Principal. “The warmer conditions should play to the strengths of the BMW.
“We had a long debrief on Sunday night at Donington in which I encouraged the engineers to think outside the box to try to unlock extra performance. We saw last weekend that there are some cars that have all of a sudden become extremely competitive over the winter and we’ll need to be right on top of our game to make sure we stay among them.”
good points haul this weekend.”
The leaders of the Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships – who are also tied for the top spot in the Manufacturers’ rankings – are working flat-out at their Sunbury-on-Thames base to prepare the pair of WSR-run BMW 330i M Sports for the trip to Kent.
Colin has an enviable history on the 2.6-mile circuit as it has been the scene of each of his record-equalling four BTCC title successes plus one of his greatest drives as he won from 15th on the grid in 2017.
The 38-year-old Northern Irishman holds a six-point lead in the Drivers’ rankings, meaning his BMW will be the heaviest car in practice, qualifying and Race One with the maximum 60kg success ballast onboard.
Team-mate Tom Oliphant repeated his 2019 achievement by scoring a podium finish at Donington and sits sixth in the Drivers’ standings – just five points away from a top-three spot.
His BMW will be equipped with 30kg success ballast – the most he has ever carried into a BTCC weekend.
Despite this, the Leamington Spa-based racer – who has set a fastest lap in each of the past two seasons at the track and collected several podiums during his career en route to the BTCC – is confident of again showing strongly.
Brands Hatch hosts the second round of the 2020 BTCC, which features live coverage of every race on ITV4 in HD and online via the ITV Hub, with highlights shown across the ITV network subsequently.
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