Turkington hails 'race of my life' after last-gasp title win

2019 British Touring Car Championship drivers' champion Colin Turkington has described a dramatic third race at Brands Hatch as the 'race of my life' after producing a championship winning charge from 25th to 6th.

Despite leading the points table for most of the season, a series of incidents saw Turkington head into the season decider hunting the championship lead, rather than protecting it after Dan Cammish moved into an 8-point lead with one race to go.

However, in a complete reversal of fortunes from a nightmare second race, Turkington moved into a championship winning position with less than two-laps of the season to go after Cammish careered into the tyre wall at Hawthorn corner.

Turkington made an extraordinary charge from 25th on the grid, which began with the Team BMW driver making up an incredible ten places on the opening lap of the race.

A sixth place finish was enough for Turkington to win the championship and join Andy Rouse on four BTCC titles.

With his West Surrey Racing team mate Andrew Jordan also pushing for the title, Turkington said he didn't initially realise he was in a championship winning position following Cammish's crash.

"To win it only two or three laps from the end is completely different to the other ones that I’ve won. It was just shock when I crossed the line that they told me I was champion," said Turkington.

"My engineer said that Dan [Cammish] was out of the race but I couldn’t see Andy [Jordan]. So I didn’t know where he was. So the message I got was Dan was out the race but I didn’t know if that was enough.

"I had nobody left to pass! I passed everybody that was in front of me. For sure it was the race of my life. The shock that I came out on top."

Having admitted he felt like his title hopes were over following the dejection of race two, Turkington said he could sympathise with Jordan and Cammish, who both missed on out the title by just 2-points.

"I do feel for Andy and Dan. You put in a full years work to try and win this thing and I thought it had left me after race two. I thought that was me out," the newly crowned four-time champion continued.

"It’s a bitter pill for those guys. I’m just so proud of my team and proud of what we achieved. I firmly believe we’ve worked harder than anyone for this."

Turkington's fourth title finally sees a driver equal Andy Rouse's 34-year record but the Team BMW driver admits chasing records is not what's on his radar.

"It’s obviously really cool. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would get close to Andy Rouse. You don’t really think too much about records," Turkington continued.

"All I wanted to do was not match Andy Rouse but just to win the year. Just to win 2019. The drug is standing on this podium or on your car.

"You have that feeling in your body. That’s what I was chasing, not records. Just that feeling of elation. Nothing else in life gives you that. Four titles is amazing. Maybe that’s me done now!"