Turkington joins WTCC from Portugal

Reigning British Touring Car Champion, Colin Turkington, confirmed today he signed up for an initial three rounds of this year’s World Touring Car Championship – and may be running further rounds.

Turkington plans to join the grid for the WTCC round in Portimão, followed by Brands Hatch and Brno at the wheel of a BMW 320si car run by West Surrey Racing.

“I feel this is a natural progression for me after last year’s victory in BTCC,” said Turkington. “We were bitterly disappointed when – due to insufficient sponsorship - we were unable to compete in a full programme. This opportunity – initially for three rounds - has been made possible through the support of a group of sponsors. We are really grateful to them and hopefully, with further support from others, we may be able to make additional rounds towards the end of the season.”

The Irishman added: “This is part of our plan to target a full programme in 2011. We will be working hard over the coming months to demonstrate the WTCC is a fantastic event with which to be associated as a sponsor and will be speaking with a number of organisations in the hope they will come on board for next year.”

WSR Team Principal, Dick Bennetts, commented: “We are all really looking forward to seeing how Colin and the team go in the WTCC. The guys have nearly finished rebuilding his BMW and we are just waiting on a fresh engine and some parts from BMW Motorsport, before doing some testing prior to our first race in Portimão.”

Turkington and WSR are not new to WTCC as they took part in two events back in 2008 at Brands Hatch and Macau, claiming one 3rd and one 4th in their home race meeting.