Team BMW’s Colin Turkington secured the first piece of British Touring Car Championship ‘Silverware’ on offer at Brands Hatch as he won the Goodyear Wingfoot Award for ending the season as the series’ best qualifier.
Points are awarded across the season and added up with Colin’s eighth place on the Brands Hatch grid – rounding out a year that has featured three pole positions – meaning his qualifying results proved better than those of any other driver.
“We’ve seen a much tighter battle for pole position here than in previous years,” commented Team Principal Dick Bennetts. “Last year 0.4 seconds was the gap from first to sixth and the year before it was the gap from first to second. Today it’s covered the top 14.
“When drivers and cars are so evenly-matched, it makes it difficult to make progress – especially with the option tyre not being used here. Congratulations to Colin for winning the Goodyear Wingfoot Award and to everyone at WSR that has helped him to achieve it. He’s a class act and he’s proved that when the pressure’s really on, he can deliver. That’s why he’s a four-time champion and why he starts tomorrow’s opening race still very much in the title hunt.”
It’s the second year in a row that Colin has won the award in his WSR-designed, built and run BMW 330i M Sport and comes a day before he will fight for the BTCC Drivers’ title across the Kent circuit’s three races.
Colin, driving the second-heaviest car on the grid with 66kg success ballast, had spent the morning’s two practice sessions focusing on long runs on old tyres with an eye on Sunday.
But the four-time champion instantly found an extra burst of speed when new slicks were fitted to his BMW 3 Series in qualifying.
Aided by a crucial tow from team-mate Stephen Jelley, he qualified eighth – just 0.172 seconds away from pole position on a day when less than 0.4s separated the top 14 cars.
Tomorrow he must overturn a 32-point deficit to the series leader if he is to win the championship, but is also tasked with helping BMW win a record-breaking sixth straight Manufacturers’ title.
Stephen had been the quickest of the WSR drivers in practice and appeared likely to repeat that form into qualifying as he ran inside the top four for the first half of the 30-minute session.
The Leicester racer later sacrificed a late run of his own to help Colin’s quest to move up the grid and will start tomorrow’s opening race ninth as a result.
Tom Oliphant was the fastest of the trio in the opening session, the Leamington Spa-based racer no longer suffering from the issues he experienced at Donington following a deep dive into the BMW by the WSR team in the week between events.
Tom was another to feature in the hunt for the top positions throughout qualifying and wound up less than 0.2s away from his team-mates’ times. He will start Sunday’s opener from 14th place.
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