They occupy the seats everybody else covets, but that doesn’t mean Team BMW’s Colin Turkington and Tom Oliphant have it easy in the British Touring Car Championship. Quite the opposite.
In the third season for the current 330i M Sport, the pair are among six race winners from the nine rounds run at the three meetings held so far, with a single victory apiece.
Turkington, 39, has been racing in the BTCC since 2002 and shares the record for most BTCC titles with Andy Rouse – four – while Oliphant is in his fourth season, has two races wins and hopes to challenge for his first title this year. Turkington is currently fourth in the standings, 39 points down on leader Ash Sutton, while Oliphant is sixth, just five points behind his team-mate.
We caught up with the pair at the Goodwood Festival of Speed to discuss life in the BTCC ahead of the next round at Oulton Park on July 31/August 1.
What’s your summary of the season so far? You’ve both had a win, but it’s not been easy.
Colin Turkington: I don’t think we expected it to be when you look at how competitive the BTCC is. Every year it gets more condensed and there are no slow cars on the grid any longer. It’s harder to win and have strong weekends. I’ve had a positive start, but there’s been no hassle-free weekends, like at Brands Hatch last time out. But normally when we get into the summer it’s our territory with great tracks coming up like Oulton Park and Knockhill. Good rear-wheel drive circuits. We’re never guaranteed success, but we should be quicker.
Tom Oliphant: For this year there were a lot of new cars and drivers swapping teams, and there’s a decent driver in every car. After Thruxton, Snetterton and Brands Indy, I expect my season to kick off now. So I’m pleased to have picked up good points and scored a first win of the season, which is always important. The car has been really quick, but I had two races in the first two rounds where I had terrible luck and got taken out. It’s how it goes.
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