Colin Turkington excelled on his return to WSR last season to finish third in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship standings and has his eye on the title this time around as Team RAC prepares to roll out its new
BMW E90s for the 2007 season.
Turkington is still waiting to test his own car for the first time with the team currently working with a loan car from Sweden, but the time is drawing closer when the actual WSR cars will make their on-track debut.
Crash.net Radio caught up with Colin to see how he is enjoying life with the BMW so far.
Q:
How have you been finding the BMW so far?
Colin Turkington:
Very good. We have only had minimal running in our loan car and are trying not to change too much because the whole idea is to get familiar with the car and just do laps. The transition from the MG to the BMW – and to rear-wheel drive – has been ok for me and we are just starting to get a feel for what the car does and make a few small changes, see what happens and try and understand it. There is a lot to learn, both for me and the guys on the team, but so far it has gone very well.
Q:
How are you finding the working relationship with your new team-mate?
Colin Turkington:
It’s been grand. We have just been sharing the one car at the moment and haven’t done a lot of running but is good to bring someone new into the team to freshen things up a bit. It will be great if we can get two Team RAC cars up at the front of the grid.
Q:
What is the current state of play with your own car?
Colin Turkington:
Hopefully I’ll have a run in it next [this] week. We have just had a few slight delays and are missing a few parts but it should be together soon to allow us to go and test. The more miles we can then do before the first race, the better.
Q:
How beneficial do you think it will be when we get to the start of the season to have had the Swedish loan car to run with before your own cars were ready?
Colin Turkington:
It’s fantastic and is all mileage under the belt. Like I said, it is different to the MG and the more confident I can get in the car, the better. It is easy to step into the car and drive fast but it is getting that last little bit that is difficult and the more miles we can do, the easier that will be.
Q:
Has driving the car changed any expectations and aim you have compared to when we spoke back in January when the programme was announced?
