British Touring Car Championship race winner Darren Turner has taken on the role as the series’ official hybrid development test driver. Turner’s role will be for both TOCA and Cosworth in conjunction with current BTCC team Speedworks Motorsport.
Turner is a proven BTCC race winner, having won seven races during his time in the championship between 2006 and 2008 where he competed for SEAT. Following his foray in touring cars, Turner competed in the World Endurance Championship for Aston Martin Racing and was part of the crew that scored their class win at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2017.
In his role as Hybrid Development Driver, the 46-year-old will be getting behind the wheel of a Speedworks-prepared Toyota Corolla at the series’ tyre supplier, Goodyear’s, official test day at Snetterton on 7/8 July.
Turner, in an interview with BTCC.net, deemed the role as “a really interesting project” and “a brilliant opportunity”, saying: “It’s a really interesting project. I hugely enjoyed the British Touring Car Championship when I raced in it and this is a brilliant opportunity to get back in a touring car and do something a little bit different. I’ve not had the opportunity to use hybrid with anything else I have done before, in terms of race cars.
“As the hybrid deployment will be for both attacking and defending, we will need to work on how it is best configured so that it’s easy to understand and easy to use. It’s also important that the fans can see it and understand what’s going on.”
The BTCC expects to introduce a hybrid solution, developed by Cosworth Electronics in partnership with Speedworks Motorsport, into the series in 2022.
