Colin Turkington was left brimming by his first Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship success in Subaru colours, after winning the opening race of the day at Oulton Park.
The Team BMR man held onto his advantage from a stunning pole position in the opening 15-lapper of the day in Cheshire, clinching the first BTCC victory for the Japanese manufacturer in just their 10th race.
With just 13 points to the team’s name from the opening three meetings, the Levorg GT finally broke its duck thanks to the double champion to complete a rapid turnaround after their Thruxton withdrawal.
“It’s a fantastic feeling”, Turkington told The Checkered Flag afterwards. “There’s nothing like winning. I gave myself the best chance but we still went into that race not sure of what we’ve got or how good the car would be.
Photo: BTCC Media
“I’m just delighted for the team. It’s good for me, but the guys have put in so much work and got nothing back. To get two podiums after race one is a great reward.”
Speaking of the Subaru’s performance on soft tyres, Turkington added: “We thought the soft tyre would be the best for these conditions.
“We’ve never run at the front, or in conditions like these with the soft tyres. I think we’ve found the sweet spot now and the whole package is slowly moving forward. But, we both had no weight so that’s a deciding factor.
“I felt good out there and it felt smooth. There wasn’t really much degradation either so you don’t often get wins as easy as that.”
Race two sees Turkington start with an extra 75kg success ballast in his Levorg, additional weight only carried once by the BMR squad in the 2016 season so far.
“It’s not going to be easy”, he concluded. “We’ve not had that kind of weight on the car before. The good thing is that we’re starting with a balanced car and we’ll do the best that we can.”
