Colin Turkington

Colin Turkington
Colin Turkington in 2011.
Nationality	British
Born	March 21, 1982 (1982-03-21) (age 29) Portadown (Northern Ireland)
Related to	Gary Turkington (brother)
2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship
Debut season	2002 BTCC
Current team	Flash Engineering
Car no.	5
Starts	10
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	2nd in
Previous series
2002-09 2000–01 2010	BTCC Ford Fiesta Cup World Touring Car Championship
Championship titles
2009 2001	BTCC Ford Fiesta Cup
Awards
2009 2009	Autosport National Driver of the Year Craigavon Sports Personality of The Year

Colin Henry Turkington (born 21 March 1982) is a Northern Irish auto racing driver. His most notable success to date was becoming 2009 British Touring Car Champion driving for Team RAC. Most recently he has competed in the 2010 World Touring Car Championship driving a BMW 320si for West Surrey Racing (WSR). For 2011, Turkington will compete in the inaugural Scandinavian Touring Car Championship (STCC) driving a BMW for Flash Engineering.

Career

Early career

Turkington, who was born in Portadown, began his racing career in the Ulster Karting series in 1993.^[1] He competed in autograss in 1996 and 1997,^[1] before moving on to the Northern Irish Metro Championship in 1998, where he won his first title.^[1] He moved on to the Ford Credit Fiesta Zetec Championship on mainland Britain in 1999, winning the title in 2001.^[1]

British Touring Car Championship

Turkington driving the Team RAC-run MG at Brands Hatch in 2006.

Turkington driving the Team RAC-run BMW at Oulton Park in 2007.

Turkington driving the Team RAC-run BMW at Croft in 2008, where he won two of the three races.

Team Atomic Kitten (2002)

Turkington was able to move on to the BTCC in 2002. His first BTCC drive was in a year-old MG sponsored by the pop group Atomic Kitten, partnering fellow Fiesta graduate Gareth Howell. He finished 14th overall in the standings, and 6th in the Independents class.

West Surrey Racing (2003–04)

For 2003, Turkington moved to the manufacturer-backed team West Surrey Racing (WSR), winning his first race at Brands Hatch and finishing 8th in the championship. Despite the loss of official MG backing he finished 6th in 2004, adding another win to his tally at his home circuit of Mondello Park.

Vauxhall (2005)

For 2005 he replaced champion James Thompson at Vauxhall. While Yvan Muller challenged for the title, Turkington finished in 6th place, despite taking pole at the season-opener.^[2] This performance was not good enough for him to retain the seat for the following season.

WSR (2006–2009)

For 2006, he rejoined WSR to drive an RAC backed MG ZS alongside Rob Collard, driving car number 6. A strong first half of the season made him the closest challenger to Matt Neal for the title,^[3] although Jason Plato pipped him to 2nd overall in the final race of the year due to some bad luck when in strong scoring positions. Late in the season the team switched to bio-ethanol fuel,^[4] nearly becoming the first team to win a race with it. Overall he took 2 wins and 14 podiums.

For 2007 the MG was no longer eligible to win the championship outright, so the team switched to the BMW 320si. Tom Onslow-Cole joining Turkington as the second driver. His first win (and BMW's first in the BTCC for over a decade) came in round four at Croft,^[5] where he also took a third place finish.^[6] After the team swept the front row at Snetterton,^[7] he won race one, only to be disqualified as the car was underweight.^[8] He went on to win his first Independent Drivers' title, finishing fifth overall with three wins.

Turkington competed with WSR in the Brands Hatch and Macau rounds of the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in 2007 as a wild card. At Brands, he finished third in the first race on the 'virtual podium' and finished fourth in the second race but as his car wasn't homologated because of its sequential gearbox he did not collect race points. In Macau, he finished fourteenth and eighth in the two races.

In 2008 he was joined at Team RAC by Formula Three driver Stephen Jelley. Turkington scored four wins on his way to fourth in the overall standings, retaining his Independent Drivers' crown. He also finished every race that season.

In 2009, Turkington took the overall championship lead at the mid-season point, and went on to win the BTCC title in a thrilling finale, after six wins. Turkington finished consistently, with an unbroken run of eighteen point-scoring finishes, from Croft onwards. He failed to finish in just one race, which was the first race at Donington Park when he got tapped from behind by Adam Jones at Coppice corner and spun into the gravel.

World Touring Car Championship

Turkington at the 2010 FIA WTCC Race of Japan.

Turkington was unable to secure the funding to take part in the BTCC in 2010 but on 3 June 2010 it was announced that he would compete in three rounds of the 2010 World Touring Car Championship series (WTCC) driving a BMW for WSR at Algarve, Brands Hatch and Brno.^[9] At Brands Hatch he was the top BMW on the grid in fourth, before finishing third in race one and second in race two, comfortably winning the Independent class in both races. With additional points awarded to an Independent driver finishing in the top ten positions overall, Turkington moved into second place in the Independents championship, despite having only competed in two meetings. On 1 August 2010 the WTCC changed the regulations which effective stopped Turkington being an independent.^[10] After the Brno race he lay 9th in the overall championship.

In October 2010, it was announced that Turkington and WSR would compete in the final two rounds of the WTCC in Japan and Macau.He took his first win in Japan after Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx were disqualified.^[11]

In July 2011 it was announced that Turkington would take the seat at Weichers Sport for the FIA WTCC Race of UK at Donington Park.

Scandinavian Touring Car Championship

For 2011, Turkington decided to drive a BMW 320si in the STCC for the team Flash Engineering as teammate of Jan Nilsson. He was replacing Thed Björk after he couldn't get a full drive in the WTCC. The STCC is a merger of the national championships in Sweden and Denmark.

Other Work

Turkington was elected to the MSA's Race Elite Scheme in April 2007, along with 5 other drivers in various British series. He has also done TV work, presenting a BBC Northern Ireland look at environmental damage in 2002.^[12]

Racing record

Complete BTCC Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car																															Position	Points
2002	Team Atomic Kitten	MG ZS	BHGP		OUL		THR		SIL		MON		CRO		SNE		KNO		BHI		DON												14th	29
					19	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	12	DNS	DNS	3	5	9	4	8	Ret	Ret	16	11	Ret
2003	MG Sport & Racing	MG ZS	MON		BHI		THR		SIL		ROC		CRO		SNE		BHI		DON		OUL												8th	97
			DNS	Ret	6	Ret	8	Ret	3	8	Ret	Ret	4	7	Ret	4	3*	1*	19	2	6	3
2004	West Surrey Racing	MG ZS	THR			BHI			SIL			OUL			MON			CRO			KNO			BHGP			SNE			DON			6th	173
			14	10	6	6	5	5	11	5	12	4	6	5	3	6	1*	6	7	3	4	Ret	3	10	2*	11*	4	5	7	3	7	6
2005	VX Racing	Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch	DON			THR			BHI			OUL			CRO			MON			SNE			KNO			SIL			BHGP			6th	174
			5	Ret	8	4	7	2	2	5	5	10	6	Ret	1*	2	7	4	1*	5	7	7	Ret	3	4	7	7	Ret	9	7	Ret	6
2006	Team RAC	MG ZS	BHI			MON			OUL			THR			CRO			DON			SNE			KNO			BHI			SIL			3rd	240
			4	2	2	4	3	2	7	17	5	8	6	1*	4	3	2	2*	8	1*	Ret	3	4	7	9	Ret*	3	3	4	2	DSQ	2
2007	Team RAC	BMW 320si	BHI			ROC			THR			CRO			OUL			DON			SNE			BHI			KNO			THR			5th	184
			2	2	Ret	7	Ret	Ret	4	5*	17	1*	Ret*	9	3*	1*	Ret	7	9	6*	DSQ	9	6	4*	9	1*	2	2	6	6	4	11
2008	Team RAC	BMW 320si	BHI			ROC			DON			THR			CRO			SNE			OUL			KNO			SIL			BHI			4th	212
			20	8	1*	16	6	7*	9*	13	12	2	2*	6	1*	1*	8	5	2	6	4	1*	7	5	7	15	4	2	4	4	3	5
2009	Team RAC	BMW 320si	BHI			THR			DON			OUL			CRO			SNE			KNO			SIL			ROC			BHGP			1st	275
			3*	2*	4	4	1*	9	Ret	5	2	1*	1*	11	1*	1*	6	5	2	1	4	3	5	4	4	3	10	4	4	8	3	2*

Complete WTCC results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		Position	Points
2007	Team RAC/AVIVA	BMW 320si	BRA		NED		ESP		FRA		CZE		POR		SWE		GER		UK		ITA		MAC				NC†	0†
																			3†	4†			14	8†
2010	eBay Motors	BMW 320si	BRA		MAR		ITA		BEL		POR		UK		CZE		GER		ESP		JPN		MAC				10th	97
											12	10	3	2	6	2					4	1	Ret	13
2011	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320TC	BRA		BEL		ITA		HUN		CZE		POR		GBR		GER		ESP		JPN		CHN		MAC		13th	46
															10	10					6	7	2	4

• † Turkington was not eligible to score championship points.
• * Season still in process

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} http://www.touringcartimes.com/news.php?id=4059
2. ^ http://www.btcc.net/html/circuit_detail.php?id=6
3. ^ http://www.trymysport.co.uk/sports_news/touring_car_racing_news/2006/aug06/2006%20BTCC%20Newsletter%2012.pdf
4. ^ http://www.eemsonline.co.uk/press_releases/06-09-06_1
5. ^ http://www.crash.net/feature_view~cid~10~id~11434.htm
6. ^ http://www.racnews.co.uk/index.asp?PageID=24&Year=2007&startrow=6&newsid=144
7. ^ Autosport. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/61192. 
8. ^ http://btccpages.co.uk/rounds/2007/19_20_21/race1a.php
9. ^ O'Leary, Jamie (3 June 2010). "Turkington seals three-round deal". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/84113. Retrieved 3 June 2010. 
10. ^ "WTCC - Fia World Touring Car Championship". Fiawtcc.com. 2010-08-01. http://www.fiawtcc.com/Read_News.asp?idNews=639. Retrieved 2010-08-02. 
11. ^ O'Leary, Jamie (22 October 2010). "Turkington and WSR in WTCC return". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87634. Retrieved 25 October 2010. 
12. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/4_11/pfocus/pdf/pfocus_sum04_pr05.pdf

External links

• Official Website
• Team website
• btcc:action profile

Sporting positions
Preceded by Fabrizio Giovanardi	British Touring Car Champion 2009	Succeeded by Jason Plato
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Oliver Turvey	Autosport Awards National Driver of the Year 2009	Succeeded by Jason Plato

Persondata
Name	Turkington, Colin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	21 March 1982
Place of birth	Portadown (Northern Ireland)
Date of death
Place of death