Turkington 'very proud' of historic 50th BTCC win

Team BMW's Colin Turkington admits his pride in securing a landmark 50th British Touring Car Championship race victory after hitting the milestone in race two at Oulton Park.

Turkington tightened his vice-like grip on this season's title with a brace of victories in races one and two at the Cheshire circuit, the second of which moving the defending three-time champion onto a half century of race victories.

The BMW 330i M Sport driver's 49th and 50th wins in the series also moved him ahead of three-time champion Gordon Shedden as the fourth most successful driver in terms of race victories in BTCC history.

"It’s been an excellent day," Turkington told Crash.net. "Any time you win twice, or even once, is great and to hit a milestone of 50 BTCC wins, I feel very proud of that.

"That can only be achieved when you’re driving for a team like this that give you the tools to be able to do the job.

""You aim for a podium and then you aim for a win and then a championship. You never dream you get to these milestones.

It’s a very happy day and I think I’ll enjoy this day because we’ve grafted hard for it and all those other wins because you don’t get any free ones in BTCC."

Having produced a sensational lap to qualify on pole position with maximum ballast, Turkington successfully replicated that form on race day to control the opening two races ahead of Honda's Dan Cammish in race one and West Surrey Racing BMW team mate Andrew Jordan during the following encounter.

An eighth place finish during a chaotic third race means Turkington will head into the second half of the season with a 33-point lead ahead of Jordan in second.

"My pace was good in both races, particularly race two. We were in a good place with the car and I felt really strong so that’s nice when you feel like you’re the quickest man out on the track," the BMW driver continued.

"That feels good. I was really pleased with my performance this weekend and the points we’ve got.

"Everything is on the limit and if you’re not where you want to be with the car then your pace is down a bit. I had my car perfect. I was rocking in that race. I don’t know he [Jordan] was but I wasn’t thinking too much. Once I started to pull away I was happy."