7 – It’s like he’s never been away – Turkington back to winning ways
The statistics say that a total of 1274 days separate 2009 champion Colin Turkington‘s title-winning final race of that particular season and his eagerly-awaited comeback of 2013. BTCC onlookers pensively guessed as to whether the Irishman could still be the force he was with West Surrey Racing as back then – in fact, he returned stronger than that.
A messy opening to the season as he and the eBay Motors squad adapted to the new-look NGTC BMW 125i was what began for Turkington, but it took him just six races to return to the top step of a BTCC podium after a calm drive from the front during Donington’s reverse-grid encounter.
Turkington was back with a vengence, and soon became a genuine title contender by the halfway stage of the season.
The Irishman came oh-so-close to a whitewash of the field at an almost washed out meeting at Croft, pole position, two wins and a second place finish on the tail of Matt Neal being one of the weekends of the 2013 season.
Bad luck after a superb Knockhill visit then hindered Turkington’s championship chances, a disastrous opening race at Brands Hatch ending his title chances after a fine season.
(Photo Credit: btcc.net)
