Colin Turkington will make a one-off appearance at the next round of the World Touring Car Championship. The 2009 British Touring Car Champion will race the BMW 320 TC run by the Wiechers-Sport team at the British round of the championship at Donington Park next weekend (17th July).
Turkington replaces Stefano D'Aste at Wiechers. D'Aste made his return to the WTCC with the team at the last round in Porto, impressing with his instant pace and leading race two after starting from pole position. He cannot race at Donington to a clash with a round of the GT4 European Cup at Zolder, where he is racing a Lotus Evora.
Turkington entered five rounds of last year's WTCC season with West Surrey Racing. He scored a double podium at his second event at Brands Hatch, and then scored a further second place at Brno. He returned for the season-ending events in Japan and Macau, inheriting a victory in race two at Okayama after the factory BMW of Augusto Farfus was excluded.
Unable to secure a full-time drive in the WTCC for 2011, the Northern Irishman has been racing in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship with Flash Engineering.
“I am delighted with this opportunity,” said Turkington. “It’s great to be back racing in front of my British fans on such a fantastic circuit like Donington Park.
“I have raced there many times in a BMW but this will be my first experience with the new 1.6 turbo engine. I’m really excited to see how this performs and I’m confident we can deliver a strong performance.”
Team manager Dominik Greiner commented: “I'm happy we signed Colin for the British event. He knows the track very well and I'm confident that with him we may continue on our positive upward trend that began last week in Porto with Stefano D'Aste who was leading a WTCC race for the first time in the team's history.”
You can win tickets to see Colin Turkington race in the World Touring Car Championship at Donington Park by entering The Checkered Flag’s competition. Click here to find out more.
