At the end of TCR UK’s second season, we grabbed the thoughts from our top three in championship after a dramatic final race at Donington Park. James Turkington follows Daniel Lloyd’s legacy to become the second ever TCR UK champion for Ciceley Motorsport in the Cupra TCR. Runner-up would be Lewis Kent in the Hyundai i30 as Darelle Wilson completed the top three in his Opel Astra TCR.
James Turkington
“We knew what we had to do. Keep out of trouble in the first corner and do our own thing, as we had the points buffer. Fair play to the guys at Ciceley, they’ve done a mega job all year, they’ve been on it. We didn’t even do the first round and we’ve rocked away with the championship, so I’m chuffed to bits.”
“Crossing the line in the last race was definitely the highlight. We struggled with the weight in qualifying and race one which made that difficult, but we knew that if we just kept our nose clean and brought it home, we’d stand a very good chance and here we are now.”
“It’s been a week for sure!” (after brother Colin won another UK Touring Car title.) “That’s never happened and hopefully today was a bit less stressful than last week, but we got there in the end.”
Lewis Kent
“We tried our hardest this year. I can’t thank the boys enough for the car they’ve prepared us. If only we could get in front of Alex [Morgan] a little bit sooner and take the battle to Adam [Morgan]. I can’t complain, we’ve had a very good year and hopefully we can get further down the line during the winter, with development on the car, and find what else we can do. See what else we look go into and see what bigger championships we can find. If this grows a bit more, we’ll be back, it’s a lovely series, lovely atmosphere and very friendly. I am looking for Europe but it’s finding the budget, so I’ll spend the winter looking for sponsors and hopefully head off over there.”
“All the guys in the team are mostly my family and friends, so I’m really thankful for what they’ve done. I can’t say enough how well they’ve prepared the car. You should see our workshop, we have a little three unit shop, it’s nothing like those we race against. I’ve got to say thanks to Lee, my dad and my Grandad, who’s been my main sponsor for the last 11-13 years. Hopefully we can push on to next year.”
Darelle Wilson
“I enjoyed this weekend, we’ve found the pace now. Too bad it was at the last round, if I’d had it at Brands, we could have still won the championship. I missed out the first round at Oulton Park too, so I’m really happy to be third in the standings.”
“The V-Max guys from Germany have been a massive help, I’m sad I didn’t get them in sooner, I could have won the championship. The car has been awesome today and yesterday. Being fastest in Free Practice and Qualifying [for TCR] and throughout the races I was one of the fastest on the track. We’re a small family team, we’re not like the others, we have hardly any big sponsorship other than Taylex, it’s all provided from what we earn weekly. I work hard to race. Hopefully with that result in TCR UK, I can work on next year.”
