One of eight contenders in contention for the 2016 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch GP, Colin Turkington insists Brands Hatch GP will be a ‘complete lottery’.
The double BTCC champion recovered from a grid penalty in style by grabbing results of eighth and two fourth place finishes in the penultimate meeting at Silverstone, leaving the Silverline Subaru Team BMR driver a reduced 37 points adrift of series leader, Sam Tordoff.
Three races at Brands Hatch GP remain to decide the fate of the 2016 title on 1/2 October, Turkington ironically predicting another unpredictable meeting to settle the battle.
“I think we’ll be OK”, Turkington told TCF ahead of the season finale. “We’ve been strong everywhere really.
“I think we’ll go there with a good chassis and the lottery balls are in the air really. It’s an open field, so it’s hard to tell who’s going to be quick. It’s going to be the same blokes up there.”
Turkington remains a relative outsider for the title in seventh place, with just 67 points left for on the table in Kent. The Subaru Levorg driver does however believe that the 2016 season has been ‘like no other’, insisting that the pendulum could still swing in his direction.
“You always say the ideal place is to be going in fourth, with reduced ballast, but not too many points away”, said Turkington, who carries just 27kg ballast compared to Tordoff’s 75kg. “It’s anybody’s at the moment….a complete lottery.
“We’ve done really well to get ourselves this close. This whole season has been different to others, because usually there’s three or four guys making a break for it, but everybody’s taking points off each other.”
Returning to the penultimate meeting at Silverstone, Turkington said that three positive results surpassed expectations at a circuit that he previously stated he expected overtaking to be difficult at.
“It was one of my better weekends”, said Turkington. “It’s funny how it worked out. Things just fell my way. Aside from Oulton Park and Croft, that could be the next best one. We had a good car, kept working and took advantage when the others had issues.”
The initial stepping stone to a fine Sunday for the Northern Irishman was an opening race climb from 29th to eighth spot, the BMR driver admitting that the task in hand was made trickier by a speed disadvantage.
Turkington found his own ways around BMR’s documented straight-line pitfall, saying that the Levorg’s chassis strengths gave him the ability to flaunt more overtaking prowess.
“There’s only four corners and you’re limiting you’re overtaking opportunities but the car was strong in the right places. Towards the end of the races I still had a strong car, whereas the FWD cars on the softs where dropping quite quickly.
“I had to be patient in picking my moments. It was a game a chess really.”
Turkington’s Subaru team-mate Jason Plato also remains in contention for the championship, 58 points shy in the Manufacturer’s maiden assault on the championship.
