West Surrey Racing team boss Dick Bennetts has admitted he would love the chance to see his team compete in the World Touring Car Championship on a more regular basis after a fine display from Colin Turkington at Brands Hatch.

Thanks to title sponsors RAC, the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship front-runner secured a wild-card entry into the British rounds of the WTCC and was one of the stars of the weekend - qualifying third on the grid and then taking his BMW 320si to a podium finish in race one and a fourth place in race two.

It was a weekend that left Bennetts thrilled with the performance of his team, admitting that - as with Turkington - the results had exceeded his expectations

"We were quite nervous before we came here as to how we would stack up against the World Touring Car guys, but the whole team has done a fantastic job," he told Crash.net Radio. "We are very pleased to come away so close to pole and with a third and a fourth. It was very good.

"To be honest, I looked at the entries and thought that there were five works BMWs, four works SEATs, three works Chevrolet and two semi-works Alfa Romeo's and that we could qualify in 15th and be the first private team. In reality, we hoped to be in the top ten and we well exceeded that by being just six hundredths from pole.

"There is pressure coming into an event like this that we haven't done before and it is all thanks to our sponsors RAC as they gave us the chance to it. Hopefully the TV exposure has repaid their investment!"

The team will now prepare for the final rounds of the BTCC at Thruxton before returning to action in the WTCC at Macau, with Turkington being joined by Duncan Huisman under the Team Aviva banner.

Aiming to build on the Brands Hatch performance, and with Macau expert Huisman on board, the team will now hope to impress the WTCC regulars once again in the season finale, with Bennetts admitting that he was hopeful that the two WTCC meetings could be a pre-cursor for a full-time assault on the world championship.

"We know our way round Brands Hatch but to go to Macau with two cars will be a new challenge," he said. "We have got a driver with experience of Macau to help Colin and the idea is to give Aviva - the parent company of RAC - some global exposure in the final round this year. We are hoping that if all goes well there, they might agree to support us for a full-on season in 2008 - although there is nothing to guarantee that yet."

However, Bennetts added that that didn't mean he was planning to take his team away from the BTCC - stating that he would love to be able to compete in both series if possible.

"I didn't say we would leave the BTCC," he continued when asked if it would be a wrench to leave the series. "If we could generate enough sponsorship then we could look at running two BMWs in the BTCC and two in the WTCC."