BTCC

BTCC Rounds 10,11 & 12

Here's all the high speed on track action from the ultra-fast Thruxton circuit. Again, SEAT ace Darren Turner gives us an insight to the ups and downs of a race weekend.

We were all really gearing up for a good weekend of HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship racing at Thruxton, but it didn’t turn out quite the way we thought it would. It should’ve been great, but it was a hellish frustrating end to race day instead. Sixth, fourth and 16th places weren’t the results I was looking for, despite the fact the points scored in the first two races were valuable for the championships.

Coming off the back of a really strong weekend at Donington where I won my first race of 2008, I was convinced we’d got to grips with the new SEAT Leon diesel powered car and that we’d have more of the same. We really struggled to find a good balance all weekend which meant we weren’t as quick as we thought we’d be, but things started to look up once we got racing.

Race two was an ace scrap, and started with my best ever getaway from the line. I made up three places by the end of the first lap and from then on it was very close all the way. I was running in a good third – going for a podium - when Matt Neal and I got a bit too cosy and both went wide. Tom Onslow-Cole got past and I just couldn’t get back that 3rd place. Matt and I continued to race really hard (as I also did with Mat Jackson, Tom Chilton and Colin Turkington over the three races), and two laps from the end we were side by side, banging doors – really good fun. We enjoyed it on the track and afterwards in the pits when we talked about it.

I was on for another podium place in race three when, on lap 10 of 16, I got a puncture which pretty much put paid to my race. Up till then I’d had some great racing – it was hard but fair and that’s how we all like it.

Darren Turner