Having snared his first win with the SEAT Leon TDi last time out at Donington Park, Darren Turner admits that confidence is high within the team as the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship heads to Thruxton this weekend for the fourth round of the year.
Turner bounced back from a mechanical issue with his car during the opening race while well set for a podium finish but then stormed through the field in race two to finish in fourth place.
Having quickly got ahead of Gordon Shedden in race three, Turner then controlled the final race of the weekend from the front to pick up his first win with diesel power and move up to fourth in the championship standings.
That result, along with a win in race one for team-mate
Jason Plato, has boosted confidence within the SEAT team as it continues to get to grips with the Leon TDi.
"After our success at
Donington, everyone in the team is on a high and looking forward to
Thruxton," he said. "We had almost perfect conditions for testing - it was dry, it wasn't too hot, there wasn't any wind and the track was very consistent - so we were able to work through a lot of stuff the engineers wanted to try and we found a few new things that work very well on the Leon TDi.
"When problems occur, we now have more armoury in the engineering department in terms of tested options to go out on, whereas before it was all a bit of an educated gamble."
Thruxton itself will throw up some new challenges for the team as the quickest circuit on the BTCC calendar but with the SEAT squad learning more about the car at every meeting, Turner said he was full of confidence for the weekend ahead.
"It's a new car and we haven't driven it around Thruxton yet, so we don't know for sure exactly how competitive we'll be until we get there," he said. "The long straights should suit the Leon TDi, but there are two very long high-speed corners around the back of the circuit which are crucial to a good lap time.
