BTCC

“A Good Day’s Work” For Polesitter Turkington

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Colin Turkington declared Saturday a successful one after claiming a superb pole position for the fifth British Touring Car Championship round at Croft.

Turkington smashed his own 2013 lap record by over a second with an effort of 1m23.246s, finishing 0.370s ahead of MG’s Jason Plato to take the early bragging rights at a circuit the points leader has always gone well at.

After claiming a fantastic late pole at Oulton Park, Turkington again pulled out a lap that proved untouchable and said that he timed his run to perfection.

“I’m delighted with that”, the pole man told The Checkered Flag afterwards. “The car is working really well and I got it hooked up when there was an opportunity.

“It was quite a busy track out there so it was important to find that clear lap, and the car was fast. The balance of it was really good; a good day’s work!”

The pole position is Turkington’s third at Croft in his last three BTCC qualifying appearances at the North Yorkshire venue, and he says that the development of the car makes them more prepared than 2013 – where he claimed two wins in a dominant weekend.

He added: “Last year the car was so good round here straight out of the blocks, and this year we’ve come prepared with a completely different package. It was obviously fast at Oulton and we’ve come here and proved it again.

“Our car is good in the slow and medium-speed corners and that’s where we’re gaining the pace.

“It’s very early in the season and we’re just trying to score points. I’m not putting myself under any pressure to win. We’ll just take it one step at a time.”

The most talked about fact from Oulton Park has been the longer first gear alteration made to the rear-wheel drive cars including the three WSR BMWs, a factor which Turkington says remains a mystery as to how it will affect their starts.

Turkington added however that it should not be a major issue, saying: “We did some practice starts (in the shakedown) like we always do, so it was important to really get a feel for the clutch and a totally different start.

“Hopefully I can manage it tomorrow. To be honest, until you are in a competitive environment then it’s hard to know how it will go at the start, but we’re as prepared as we can be.

“The laws of physics are still the same so the rear-wheel drive cars should always still be better off the line.”

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