BTCC The Contenders: Colin Turkington

After a third year in a row finishing fourth to his three main rivals, despite being a solid year for the four-time champion, can Turkington reclaim his throne in 2025 after a five-years without a title?

Turkington started his racing career in the Ulster Karting series in 1993 before moving to race in Autograss races and championships in 1996 and 1997 before he moved to the Northern Irish Metro Championship in 1998 where he won his first title. After claiming the championship, he joined the Ford Credit Fiesta Zetec Championship in 1999 where he went onto win the title in 2001.

In 2002 he would get a chance to race in the BTCC with Team Atomic Kitten. Despite not completing the full season and having seven retirements across sixteen races, he did manage to claim his first podium at the first race in Croft that year. He then moved to MG Sport and Racing with West Surrey Racing in 2003 where he managed to capture another five podiums and take his first win at Brands Hatch. He stayed with West Surrey Racing in 2004 despite losing MG backing. He would take his second victory at Mondello Park that season before jumping ship to VX Racing for 2005 replacing outgoing champion James Thompson. Despite finishing 6th in the standings in his Vauxhall claiming six podiums, two of them being wins, he would lose his seat at the end of the year.

He would then rejoin West Surrey Racing for 2006 where he would once again drive the MG alongside future British GT Champion Rob Collard. Despite an immense season where Turkington finished third in the standings taking two more wins, his disqualification in the penultimate race cost him as Jason Plato took second place in the standings away from him in the final race. 2007 saw him take the wheel of his first BMW in the series now that the BTC-spec MG was no longer eligible. His took another three wins and BMW’s first win in well over a decade. Despite a solid season, five retirements plagued Turkington’s first half of the season and after a disqualification at Snetterton, it left him 5th in the drivers’ standings over one hundred points behind championship winner Giovanardi. 2008 saw a similar story to previous years in terms of wins and podiums and with questions looming over whether Turkington would win a BTCC Championship, pressure was mounting.

2009 became his year where he really stepped it up a level. His consistency for the most part was unmatched and then he went on to win four times in five races. Despite a late season charge from Plato in the final 12 races with all but three occasions finishing first or second, and consistent pressure from Giovanardi, Turkington’s consistency and unbroken eighteen point-scoring finishes meant he was able to take his first BTCC title by five points over Plato. But unfortunate circumstances struck Turkington after WSR could not retain its title sponsor RAC and he became unable to defend his long and hard fought first BTCC title in 2010.

After this he moved over to the World Touring Car Championship from 2010-2012 at times claiming a win in the process. In 2011 he would also compete in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, being one of only two British drivers to compete that season. He finished fifth in the standings claiming five podiums.

After a three-year absence from the BTCC, he makes his return to the series with WSR. At round six of the season, he took his first win of the year before repeating the feat four more times before seasons end, twice at Croft and twice at Knockhill. Finishing the season fifth in the standings behind eventual champion Andrew Jordan and fellow champions Gordon Shedden, Jason Plato and Matt Neal. All five drivers were covered by fifty points by seasons end.

2014 saw Turkington claim his second BTCC title after claiming eight wins on the year, five of them in a six-race period. Heading into the final three races at Brands he held a fifty-point lead over Jason Plato and a one-hundred-point lead over third place man Gorden Shedden. After winning the title he would leave WSR for Team BMR driving a Volkswagen CC in 2015 and a Subaru Levorg GT in 2016. Despite finishing fourth in the standings in both seasons, he took nine wins and eighteen podiums during that time frame. 2017 would mark his return to BMW and WSR where he would take four wins and finish runner up to Ash Sutton as he won his first championship.

2018 was a unique year for the Northern Irishman, he won the title by twelve points over Tom Ingram’s independent Speedworks Toyota but only took a single win across the whole season and is the only driver to have done that in any single class period of the championship. Despite having four non-points-scoring finishes and two retirements, he had the most number of podiums that season and was able to pull enough of a gap over his rivals to win.

2019 saw a much different championship victory for Colin Turkington. Heading into the final round he was on the backfoot with Dan Cammish leading the standings by eight points over him. But on the penultimate lap a brake failure led to a massive crash given Turkington just enough points to clinch the title after starting 25th on the grid and finishing 6th.

After claiming his fourth BTCC title he would be runner up for the following two years to Ash Sutton in intense title fights in which both seasons would go down to Brands Hatch. He would be unable to beat his rival both years and heading into 2022 he would have his teammate Jake Hill fighting tooth and nail in the other BMW as well as rivals Sutton and Ingram. Despite fighting up their all season with the three drivers and taking a further three victories, he would end up fourth come seasons end. Despite having a similar points total in 2023 to 2022, the dominance of Sutton in the Ford meant he was significantly further behind by seasons end and was 61 points adrift from Jake Hill in 3rd in the standings.

Last season, Turkington was on much better form throughout the year finishing inside the points in all but two races and having only one retirement. Claiming four pole positions during Saturday’s qualifying ties him with Ingram on most poles in a season. In turn his qualifying performances throughout the year meant he has won his third Goodyear Wingfoot award since its inception in 2020.

Despite having solid qualifying performances throughout the year, his average finish of 6.63 is the worst of the top six. Even though he had five wins in the season, the lower end points finishes really hampered his campaign where he finished joint fourth with Dan Cammish in the standings. However, in the first race at Brands Hatch in the final round, he swapped positions with Hill and became a rear gunner for his teammate, which did cause him to lose out on another race win despite having quite good pace that weekend.

Heading into 2025, Turkington will be looking to reel in his rivals after having a decent 2024 especially continuing the form at Brands in both defence and speed, while also maintaining his consistently solid qualifying performances across the season to come.