Turkington on his way to third on the grid
TURKINGTON GETS A TYRE CHANGE


Media information: 22 September 2007


Colin Turkington's introduction to the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) today at Brands Hatch was also the Team RAC driver's first outing on Yokohama ADVAN tyres and the new rubber seemed to suit him.

The WTCC rookie was more than a tenth quicker in the first sector of Brands Hatch's longer Grand Prix circuit today compared to his time in the same sector last month in the British Touring Car Championship, which used the shorter Indy circuit. He puts the improvement down to the tyres.

Turkington on Yokohamas for the first time "I thought it would make a difference," said Turkington, who qualified third in his WTCC debut today. "We tested for the BTCC at Pembrey at the beginning of the season and Chevrolet was there running about half-a-second quicker than us. I could hear they were on the same throttle, so it had to be the tyres. After my driving today, it does seem to be faster."

Today was also the first time the Northern Irish driver had used tyre warmers. "In BTCC I have to spend three laps bringing the tyre up to temperature, about 70-80 degrees," said Turkington, 25.
"With the tyre warmers you go out with the tyres at the right temperature so you do your fast time on lap one instead of lap four."

Yokohama's Technical Consultant, Ian Beveridge, was at a Team RAC test at Snetterton last month, where engineers got to grips with the ADVANs. "They looked at cambers, springs and the roll bars and came to a slightly different set-up to the one they have with Dunlop in the BTCC," said Beveridge. "Just to get a feel for the different characteristics of the tyres.

"Our tyre has to cover a wider range of conditions worldwide than the Dunlop tyres so, for example, when the BTCC goes to Thruxton they have to produce a special tyre to cope with that condition. We're not allowed to do that.

"We have to produce a tyre that copes with everything so from that point of view we are a little bit more limited in our aggressiveness when developing the tyres. Having said that, it was still a little bit quicker!"

Turkington's S1 qualifying for WTCC round 17: 29.429
Turkington's S1 qualifying for BTCC round 22: 29.542Colin Turkington's introduction to the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) today at Brands Hatch was also the Team RAC driver's first outing on Yokohama ADVAN tyres and the new rubber seemed to suit him.

The WTCC rookie was more than a tenth quicker in the first sector of Brands Hatch's longer Grand Prix circuit today compared to his time in the same sector last month in the British Touring Car Championship, which used the shorter Indy circuit. He puts the improvement down to the tyres.

Turkington on Yokohamas for the first time "I thought it would make a difference," said Turkington, who qualified third in his WTCC debut today. "We tested for the BTCC at Pembrey at the beginning of the season and Chevrolet was there running about half-a-second quicker than us. I could hear they were on the same throttle, so it had to be the tyres. After my driving today, it does seem to be faster."

Today was also the first time the Northern Irish driver had used tyre warmers. "In BTCC I have to spend three laps bringing the tyre up to temperature, about 70-80 degrees," said Turkington, 25.
"With the tyre warmers you go out with the tyres at the right temperature so you do your fast time on lap one instead of lap four."

Yokohama's Technical Consultant, Ian Beveridge, was at a Team RAC test at Snetterton last month, where engineers got to grips with the ADVANs. "They looked at cambers, springs and the roll bars and came to a slightly different set-up to the one they have with Dunlop in the BTCC," said Beveridge. "Just to get a feel for the different characteristics of the tyres.

"Our tyre has to cover a wider range of conditions worldwide than the Dunlop tyres so, for example, when the BTCC goes to Thruxton they have to produce a special tyre to cope with that condition. We're not allowed to do that.

"We have to produce a tyre that copes with everything so from that point of view we are a little bit more limited in our aggressiveness when developing the tyres. Having said that, it was still a little bit quicker!"


Turkington's S1 qualifying for WTCC round 17: 29.429
Turkington's S1 qualifying for BTCC round 22: 29.542