Despite suffering a disappointing retirement in the final race of the weekend, Darren Turner said he was encouraged by SEATs first HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship race meeting with its Leon TDi.
The team went into the weekend having completed only limited running with the new car, but Turner was still able to qualify sixth on the grid for his debut under diesel power.
The opening race saw him follow team-mate
Jason Plato home in fourth place while race two rewarded him with a fifth place finish and the fastest lap of the race – the first time a diesel car has posted the fastest lap in the BTCC.
The only disappointment for Turner came in the final race of the weekend when he was forced into retirement after contact from the Honda of Gordon Shedden on the opening lap at Druids, although he was still pleased with how the weekend as a whole had panned out.
"We started this weekend on the back foot a little bit because of our limited pre-season testing, but I was very pleased with the performance of the car and with my results in race one and race two," he said. "Race three should have been another collection of points, but it wasn't to be. It's just unfortunate that the race was over for me before it had really begun.
"As a team we are very pleased with this weekend's performance - we've got a lot of work to do, but we were in the top five fighting for position and we could have easily found ourselves fighting for a top position. The Leon TDi has run like clockwork all weekend, so reliability isn't an issue and at different stages during the weekend we have shown that we have some good pace in the car.
"It's now a case of looking at the data, doing the work and making sure that the car works well in qualifying and in all three races. It's been a very encouraging start."
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