Team BMW continue BTCC title battle at Silverstone

Team BMW and Colin Turkington continue their fight for the British Touring Car Championship at one of the most iconic circuits in the world, Silverstone, this weekend.
 
The Northern Irishman has taken his WSR designed-and-run BMW 330i M Sport to five wins and seven podium finishes this season and leads the championship with just a pair of triple-header race weekends to go as he hunts a record-equalling fourth title.
 
He heads the standings by 10 points from Andrew Jordan – whose BMW Pirtek Racing 3 Series is also run by WSR – while the top four drivers are separated by just 30 points with 134 still available this year.
 
That form, coupled with that of team-mate Tom Oliphant, has kept BMW at the head of the Manufacturers’ Championship for the past five events while Team BMW hold second place in the Teams’ standings.
 
Colin has finished on the podium 11 times at Silverstone during his career; his highlights including a treble rostrum in 2014, but he must carry the maximum 54kg success ballast as points leader, making his car the heaviest on the grid.
 
Team-mate Tom showed race-winning speed last time out at Knockhill and became the first driver in 2019 to set the fastest lap in two races on the same day.
 
While that pace was not rewarded with the result it merited, the Leamington Spa driver arrives at Silverstone high on confidence and determined to add to the pair of podium finishes his he recorded in his first season in a rear-wheel-drive touring car.
 
Tom, who is free of success ballast, scored a pair of points finishes at Silverstone last year on his first appearance there as a BTCC driver and was also victorious on his way to the Ginetta G55 Supercup title in 2015.
 
Silverstone is a hugely significant circuit for WSR for it was at the Northamptonshire venue where the team made a race-winning Formula 3 debut in 1981 and secured their first BTCC victory in 1998.
 
The Silverstone triple-header on September 28-29 is the ninth of 10 events in this year’s BTCC, which takes in eight circuits the length and breadth of the country.