The Northern Irishman led the way in which in each the morning and afternoon classes on the wheel of his West Surrey Racing-run 330e M Sport on the squad’s first full day of track-testing with the Cosworth-developed hybrid system, following a shakedown the day prior to this on the MIRA proving floor.
Fog meant a delayed begin to the take a look at, so not a lot significant working was accomplished within the morning, however a lot of the 23 vehicles obtained respectable mileage within the afternoon, with all however a couple of outfitted with the hybrid.
Gordon Shedden moved his Workforce Dynamics Honda Civic Sort R to the forefront with just below an hour to go, earlier than a run from Turkington that featured the 2 quickest laps of the take a look at, one of the best of them zero.145 seconds forward of the Scot.
Turkington’s finest lap was zero.110s adrift of the qualifying file at Donington, set final October by Shedden.
New WSR recruit Jake Hill was sixth quickest, whereas the workforce’s different driver Stephen Jelley was 11th after specializing in longer runs.
“Monday [at MIRA] was the primary time the vehicles turned a wheel,” WSR boss Dick Bennetts instructed Autosport.
“We had a couple of hiccups with minor mapping issues with the Cosworth system however that’s to be anticipated with the brand new venture – some are resolved, some aren’t.
“However we’re getting via it one after the other, and we did fairly a couple of miles with all three vehicles.
“Numerous that was all the way down to the preparation work at WSR, and I’ve to provide credit score particularly to John Waterman [Turkington’s engineer, who has led the implementation of the hybrid] and our chief mechanic Steve Buckell.”
However Bennetts warned in opposition to studying an excessive amount of into instances.
“The issue is you don’t know who’s working what hybrid deployment, who’s working what weight, or if engines are turned up or turned down,” he added.
“The principle situation was finding out the teething troubles and dialling the automotive right into a 1370kg base weight [up from 1300kg last season].”
“It was nice simply to get again within the automotive – the primary expertise of hybrid, which we have been all extremely anticipating,” stated Turkington.
“You positively really feel a elevate by way of efficiency and energy when you deploy – you possibly can actually really feel it enhance the acceleration instantly.
“For positive we’re going to go quicker this yr, which is an efficient factor, however nonetheless we have now to deal with the dealing with, the chassis – that’s nonetheless primary.
“With the hybrid on prime of that, we’ll have a very good bundle.”
Tom Ingram put the lead Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N into third place, with BTCC returnee Dan Cammish fourth in his Motorbase Efficiency-run Ford Focus – the Ford was not solely fast, however accomplished an 18-lap race run within the afternoon.
Quickest of the non-hybrid vehicles was the Ciceley Motorsport BMW of Adam Morgan in fifth place, along with his time set on a 16-lap run – the sister automotive of BTCC rookie George Gamble was hybrid-equipped, and he set the 10th quickest time.
Behind Hill, the BTC Racing Honda of Josh Prepare dinner was seventh, adopted by the second Motorbase Ford of reigning champion Ash Sutton.
The opposite driver within the prime 10 was Dynamics Honda pilot Dan Rowbottom, ninth quickest.
Probably the most laps have been accomplished by the hybrid-fitted Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla of Ricky Collard on 86, one forward of Turkington.
Aside from Collard, the opposite testing participant not confirmed for a 2022 seat is Jason Plato. The 2-time champion accomplished 21 laps, with changes to his seating place costing a while on his first outing in a BTC Honda.
New Excelr8 Hyundai recruit Tom Chilton missed the take a look at on account of testing optimistic for COVID-19.
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