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BTCC DOUBLE FOR DT AT KNOCKHILL
02/09/2007
After a difficult weekend at Brands Hatch in mid August, it all came good for Darren and the SEAT Sport UK team at the penultimate race weekend of this year’s British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill in Scotland. He celebrated his best weekend of touring car racing to date, taking the victory laurels for two of the three races and scooping a further points scoring finish in the final outing of the day.
“It was just a fantastic weekend,” enthused Darren. “Last year at Knockhill we had good pace but were handed a couple of penalties so never got to ‘keep’ the two podium finishes I’d earned. This year I was really pumped up for it and knew that, as long as I kept out of trouble, I could keep the results.”
The weekend started well for the Leamington-Spa based driver and continued in the same vein from thereon in. In the first free practice session, Darren ran his car at the maximum ballast to help the team better understand the differences between his and Jason Plato’s set ups. Despite this additional weight, Turner and Plato were classified second and third respectively which gave them even more confidence going into the second practice session and qualifying.
After achieving his second pole position of the season Darren commented, “Although I finished up quickest, it was very close between me, Colin Turkington and Gordon Shedden so I knew that the racing the following day would be very hard.
“We had dry weather on race day, which is always a bonus at Knockhill, but my big concern was the fast-starting BMWs alongside me on the grid,” continued DT. “Luckily I had the best set of starts I’ve done over a race weekend and, although Colin Turkington pulled alongside me in the first race, he got no further. He then got into a tussle with Shedden so I could pull clear of most of the field in the first third of the race. Eventually local boy Shedden found his way past Turkington and closed me down for the remainder of the race. He made a late lunge at me into the hairpin, making contact as he did so, and got past but the contact caused him to suffer steering failure and I got the position back to the flag.
“I knew I had enough of a lead over Colin, who’s my nearest rival in the points table, but the main thing from the SEAT Sport UK team’s point of view was that it was important for me not to get into a big, do-or-die battle with Shedden for the win and risk losing points for the Teams’ and Manufacturers’ Championships. It made it even more satisfying to take the win.”
The victory might have brought a further pole position with it for the day’s second of three races, but it also meant that Darren was carrying 45 kg of ballast which potentially could have made things much more difficult. Another good start saw him edge ahead of Turkington, who also got off the line well, and maintain the lead through to the chequered flag. The Northern Irishman wasn’t able to get past the Englishman although they traded lap times throughout the 24-lap race. The gap between them hovered around the 0.5s mark but Darren knew that neither of them wanted to risk points.
"I couldn’t afford to make a mistake,” he said, “but we were lucky that many of the others got into scraps and we could pull out a bit of a gap and just drive. The guys on the team did a fantastic job between race one and two not only repairing the car after the slight contact we’d had, but also getting the balance just right with the extra 45kg. In fact, it was nicer to drive in the second race than in the first.”
The lottery-style grid selection did Darren no favours for race three and he found himself starting from 8th place on the grid, still with the victor’s 45kg of ballast. “It was really a case of damage limitation in that race. Mat Jackson jumped in front of me at the start, in another of those fast-starting BMWs, and I dropped to 9th but then got past him cleanly when he made a mistake at the chicane. There was lots of jostling for positions throughout the race and, when Adam Jones made a mistake, I got through into 7th. I couldn’t attack though and was, to be honest, really happy to come away with some more points.
“I left Knockhill having scored the most points of any driver for the weekend, and having helped boost SEAT in the Manufacturers’ Championship, taking them to within three points of Vauxhall. I moved up a place in the Drivers’ Championship and had the best weekend’s BTCC racing of my career. Now it’s all going down to the final rounds at Thruxton on 14th October.”
Darren, 34, lives near Banbury in Oxfordshire. Successful in many different categories of motorsport, his most notable and high profile victories have been at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the British Touring Car Championship. He's a firm favourite with teams, fans, and media alike from around the world.
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