British motorsport lost a huge chunk of its soul when Colin Turkington dropped from the BTCC grid for the 2025 campaign. The news was announced in February last year and, to the surprise of nobody, caused sadness across the industry as the series had just lost a four-time champion – level with Andy Rouse and Ashley Sutton – who made his debut back in 2002.
It’s not what anybody wanted, but the situation had effectively been forced upon all parties as BMW UK slashed its motorsport budget, causing customer squad West Surrey Racing to not have the funds for its salaried driver Turkington. A real heart-sinking moment.
He remained in the paddock, coaching Aiden Moffat in the BMW 330i M Sport, while driving the occasional historic, BritCar and GT races, but it did present a crossroad for the 44-year-old as he looked for that next chapter in his career.
A touring car drive looked highly unlikely, so retirement would have perhaps been the easy option, particularly when considering what else was there left for him to prove? Four BTCC titles, 72 race wins and 31 poles, the Northern Irishman has made his mark on British motorsport, but “that would be a boring end to my career” Turkington tells Autosport in an exclusive interview, so that was never going to happen.
It was during last year, however, that an opportunity presented itself: Turkington and WSR to make their British GT debuts in 2026. The team will field a BMW M4 in the GT4 class, with rally veteran Ernie Graham serving as Turkington’s co-driver ahead of this weekend’s season opener at the three-hour Silverstone 500.
“I’m really looking forward to it, probably more so than I’ve looked forward to a season in quite a long time,” says Turkington, who last won the BTCC title in 2019. “I still feel as fast and as capable as ever and I want to keep driving as long as I can.
Turkington was left without a BTCC drive in 2025, here he is coaching Moffat
Photo by: JEP
“Who knows where the GT racing could lead to. I know Ernie is ambitious, so it’s great to be on this journey with him. It keeps me super motivated and excited to be racing in a top-level championship. So, why would I not do it?”
‘Why’ indeed and it is through a mutual contact that Turkington and Graham started their partnership. The latter, the CEO of aircraft business and team title sponsor Flexifly, started rallying in 1992 and went on to win three European Historic Rally Championship titles, but decided to venture into circuit racing last year.
He did it with the purchase of an E30 – he took it to the BMW Car Club Racing Championship – and Neil McDonald, series promoter, put Graham in touch with Turkington having identified the touring car champion as the perfect coach. The two subsequently entered some races together, starting with the Silverstone Festival last August, and struck a solid working partnership claiming a podium in October for the Tony Dron Trophy.
“It’s a new dynamic to racing that I’ve not really been exposed to before, so I’m just looking forward to whatever’s coming at me. I don’t know what’s coming at me, but I still expect the racing to be really good” Colin Turkington
But a “20-minute sprint race wasn’t quite cutting the mustard” according to Turkington, so endurance racing was the natural next step and it’s fascinating how much the veteran has still had to learn for this new chapter.
“It’s very early days,” he says, amid five test days at Snetterton, Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Donington Park before round one. “We’re still very much just learning the car, learning the ropes, getting used to driver changes.
“I guess that’s the biggest difference. I’m sharing the race car with another driver, it’s much more a team effort rather than a solo effort which I’m totally used to with touring cars. So, it’s all about the team, it’s all about getting to the finish of these races. It’s not about one-lap pace who can be the fastest, it’s about who can be the smartest and the most consistent.
Turkington teams up with Graham in a Pro-Am pairing
Photo by: JEP
“It’s a new dynamic to racing that I’ve not really been exposed to before, so I’m just looking forward to whatever’s coming at me. I don’t know what’s coming at me, but I still expect the racing to be really good.”
That is why he described it as “going into it blind” because both he and 64-year-old Graham are endurance racing newbies. It is also up to Turkington to ensure that his co-driver is on the pace, because the ability of the amateur is usually what dictates success in British GT as the performance gap between those on the grid is larger than amongst the professionals.
There are some pros who don’t truly realise this, thus failing to meet expectations, whereas others – four-time series champion Jonny Adam, the prime example – do, and Turkington certainly falls in the second camp.
“I’m used to all the pressure being on my shoulders, but that’s the big difference,” he says. “It’s in my interest to make Ernie as fast as possible. I’ve never had to do that before, to try and make a team-mate get fast, it’s quite a non-natural thing to do.
“But that’s the bigger part of my job this year. So I’ll be putting as much focus and emphasis on that over my own driving, I’ll be trying to improve him more than anything. This is all about our average performance, it’s about collectively how fast we can go. It’s not about how quick I can go and hope Bernie does okay.”
So Turkington is approaching this adventure with the correct mindset – not that there was any doubt he wouldn’t – and who knows what could happen across the eight-race season? It might be tough to begin with competing against series stalwarts such as Optimum McLaren and Century BMW, Turkington therefore says that “expectations are in check”, but there is always a surprise package which comes through each season.
Optimum has won the last two GT4 titles
Photo by: JEP
Maybe this year that’ll be the WSR pairing; Graham even arriving at Silverstone on a high after his first car racing wins at Brands Hatch last weekend in the BMW Car Club GB challenge. But it would be wrong to judge this next part of Turkington’s career on how many wins or trophies he’s collected – that would be missing the point.
“The stage I’m at is primarily just to enjoy it, I want to enjoy my motorsport again,” he says. “20 years in BTCC has been very fulfilling, very demanding and stressful, it’s brought me a lot of success. I want to continue to be successful, but I also want to enjoy my motorsport and just enjoy some new opportunities racing at different circuits, to do a bit more racing internationally. So, let’s see where it all leads to.”
Come the Brands finale in September then, he wants to be “satisfied that we’ve given it everything” with anything beyond then still to be confirmed. Maybe he’ll even try another discipline of motorsport…
“It looks like I’ll be doing some rallying, Ernie is wanting to throw me out of my comfort zone and turn it into a historic rally – he’s flipping the table on me!”
British GT starts this weekend at Silverstone
Photo by: JEP
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– The Autosport.com Team
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