Turkington: "It's going to be a tougher second half of the season"
eBay Motors driver Colin Turkington topped off an impressive first half of the season in style last weekend by marrying his childhood sweetheart. We caught up with the BTCC leader as the mid-championship summer break draws to an end.
Colin, first and foremost congratulations on getting married!
Thanks a lot, it took us a while to get around to it, but we got there in the end. We had a fabulous day, we got married in Portadown, where we live and had the reception in Belfast, at the Titanic museum. We had a super time.
Shouldn't you be off on honeymoon somewhere?
We're honeymooning at the Silverstone classic! Maybe it's a sign of things to come, but we'll get a proper honeymoon in due course.
Was there anything unusual about the wedding?
There were a few surprises thrown in there which I didn't know about at all. The main one was that my dad had arranged with Dick Bennetts to have the eBay Motors racing car there, so it was shipped over for the evening. It was great for everyone back home to get a look at it, people who otherwise wouldn't see it.
Has your wife forgiven you for using her wedding dress to clean the car?
No! No, I don't think so! She wasn't too impressed. Just as we arrived it started spitting with rain, so the dress was an ideal shammy to dry the car off with.
Can you shed any light on which cars you'll be driving at the Silverstone classic this weekend?
Yeah, I'm driving the BMW CSL "Batmobile." It's a 1973 historic touring car, and there's the Ford Galaxy V8, so I'm going to have my hands full!
Are you interested in historic racing cars, and would you have liked to race in them during the 60s and 70s?
It's only something I'm getting into at the moment, but certainly just being around the track yesterday, I got my eyes opened as to the scale of the event and the wide variation of cars that are there. When you're at an event like that, you just want to drive everything! Particularly the super touring cars, that's what my main interest would be in.
Would you prefer to race the historic racing cars or the modern ones?
Probably still the modern ones. I would pick the modern ones purely because of the speed and the handling but it's nice to mix the two up and get an appreciation for what the historic stuff is like.
When the 2014 BTCC championship began, did you expect to be in this healthy position today?
I didn't know what to expect really. I knew we had made big strides during the winter with the car, but until you actually get out there alongside everybody else you don't know how competitive you'll be. I knew we would be stronger than last year, when we had really good flashes of speed, but we've had a much more consistent package this season, so that's allowed us to challenge for race wins at every event. That's ultimately what you've got to do if you're going to win the Championship.
Is it safe to say you're pretty happy with how things are going so far?
Yeah, I'm really pleased with the season, it's probably been better than I could have expected; so far I've taken six race wins and it's all come through, a lot of hard work by the team and the drivers, so hopefully we can keep the momentum going after the summer break.
Are you expecting your success to continue during the second half of the season?
I think it's going be tougher for us from now on in all honesty, we've just been to two circuits, Croft and Oulton Park, which have been historically very good for rear wheel drives but we really pretty much dominated the two events, so we go back to more circuits which aren't such in favour of rear wheel drives. It's going to be a tougher second half of the season, but we're all ready for the challenge.
Have the team been carrying out any testing during the break?
No, we haven't had the cars out since Croft, the guys have been working on the cars back at base, but we haven't been on the track yet. Hopefully we can pick up where we left off.
Have the team been working to avoid a repeat of the clutch problem you suffered in the third race at Croft?
Yeah, that has been one of the main areas we've been focusing on, making sure that doesn't happen again. Obviously reliability is key, so we've analysed what happened at Croft and taken steps to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Which of the drivers below you in the Championship standings do you see as your biggest threat for the title?
Anybody in the top six at the moment; the Hondas are always going to be strong, and the MG's, that's the direct competition at the moment, when you have seven past champions there's strength all over the field. I also think there's a lot of guys further down the field who will be particularly strong in the second half of the season. It's important to remain consistent.
Are you driving in the strongest BTCC field ever?
It's probably the strongest year that I can remember. The other fact is that we have 31 cars on the grid, there's no mugs out there at all, everybody knows where they're at. There's a huge level of experience throughout the field. It makes things very tricky, qualifying is even more important than ever, to get yourself to the front of the field. It's tougher than its ever been.
Despite the fresh challenges that Snetterton will throw up, are you confident of another race win there?
That's certainly what we'll work towards, we're always aiming for the podium. Snetterton was one of the more difficult tracks for us last year, but we have a much faster package, so I'm going there with the aim of trying to make it onto the podium and finishing well in the three races.
What would it mean to be crowned BTCC champion in the same year you were married?
It would be a dream year. I'm not getting ahead of myself, because I have a very slender margin and it's going to take a lot of hard work to stay at the front of the field, but if we keep working hard there's every chance that it can happen.
So, is the honeymoon on hold until the season finishes?
Yeah, definitely. Hopefully there'll be reason for a double celebration!
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