British Touring Car Championship leader Colin Turkington was impressed with his qualifying efforts at Snetterton on Saturday, joining Jason Plato on the front row of the grid for Sunday’s trio of races.
Turkington was still over four tenths shy of the pole-sitting Triple Eight MG, but was left upbeat by the performance of the West Surrey Racing BMW 125i in qualifying.
With the advantage of rear-wheel drive heading into the first corner, Turkington still remained wary of the pace of the MGs he will be surrounded by at the start of round 16 on Sunday.
Turkington told The Checkered Flag he did not expect to challenge for pole, saying: “We’ll see how it goes. Obviously I’ve given myself the best chance by being further up in qualifying.
“I think our pace is very good and we’ve got a nice balance here; I didn’t think we could ever have got pole position but we’ll see how it goes in the race tomorrow.”
With Sam Tordoff lying third, Turkington understands the threat Triple Eight pose in the three races in Norfolk, but added that he remains in the fight to still go on and win at a tyre-torturing Snetterton.
“It’s going to be difficult to beat the MGs, but at least we’re up there with a fighting chance”, added the championship leader.
“There’s a lot of other quick guys up there as well who put together a good lap in qualifying, so it’s going to be a tough race but I’m pleased with the performance of the car coming off the back of Oulton and Croft.
“It has been unpredictable; we’ll have to see how it goes really in the races. It’s quite a tough track on the tyres, so you’ve got to save some to be fast at the end of the race as well.”
Turkington will defend a seven-point championship lead over Gordon Shedden on Sunday, Shedden languishing down in 11th in the Yuasa Racing Honda Civic Tourer.
Northern Irishman Turkington added that the BMW continues to show its pace this season, concluding: “As we’ve seen, the BMW has been quicker at every track this season than it was last year.”
