Colin Turkington crowned BTCC champion

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Sun 4th October 2009 Team RAC’s Colin Turkington has won the 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Turkington finished second in the final race of the season to secure his first BTCC title ahead of Jason Plato and Fabrizio Giovanardi, but only after seeing his points advantage whittled away in the day’s first two races.

The 27-year-old arrived at the final meeting of the season with a 13-point advantage over VX Racing’s Fabrizio Giovanardi, but that was down to six after the first race and he was just four ahead as they lined up for round 30. In the end, Turkington did enough to secure the first BTCC drivers’ crown for Dick Bennetts’ West Surrey Racing outfit.

Jason Plato started the day 28 points behind Turkington but threatened to rain on the Northern Irishman’s parade after taking victory in the first two races of the day. The grid for race three saw Turkington line up sixth, Giovanardi seventh and Plato eighth, setting the scene for the title battle to play out on track.

It didn’t take long for the three of them to get into the thick of the action and there were nervous moments for Turkington when he suffered contact with Matt Neal at the Druids hairpin. It was enough to knock the tracking out on the BMW, but that was all.

Turkington knew that all he had to do was keep Plato and Giovanardi in sight and that was exactly what he did. Plato went on to make it a hattrick of wins for the day, but Turkington finished second, with Giovanardi fourth.

Turkington said, “It’s unbelievable. Some great people have won this championship. Many of them were my heroes before I started racing and now I’m one of them. I’m so happy to get my name up there with them.

“The team has done a magnificent job this season and I am so, so delighted with this trophy. It’s the one I have waited for all my life.”