General News

Turkington up for the fight

Colin Turkington says even with considerable success ballast aboard his Team RAC MG ZS he’s still in with a chance of winning tomorrow at Mondello Park.

Turkington’s car is the heaviest on the grid overall, but he still qualified a competitive fifth fastest for the first of Sunday’s three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship rounds at the Irish track.

It follows on from three strong performances at Brands Hatch a fortnight ago that have left him second in the current championship standings.

The 24-year-old told BTCC.net: “There’s a new philosophy about how the team is getting the car to work when it’s carrying the weight and it’s having quite a significant effect.

“I could tactically settle for fifth in race one so I’ve not got as much success ballast on my car for race two, but I don’t see the point. The MG is clearly still quick with the ballast and I think there is a good chance we can win.”

Turkington believes rival teams and drivers naively ruled out Team RAC as title candidates in the build-up to the new season.

He added: “Our qualifying set-up on the car is probably our race set-up – the car’s working so well that we don’t need to ‘wind it off’ for the races. I’m confident our pace will be strong for the duration of the races, just as it was at Brands.

“It seems some people maybe dismissed us as a threat and I think more than a few have been surprised by our form. We’ve got a great new sponsor in the RAC, we’ve got more power from the engine – although we’re still not the quickest down the straights – and the energy in the team is something else. If people could see what’s happening behind the scenes then I think they’d change their tune.”