Turkington targets home help

Colin Turkington is hoping to use home advantage for this weekend’s round of British Touring Car championship at Mondello Park in Co Kildare.

Turkington lives in Portadown, Northern Ireland, and needs a good performance to improve on his position of fifth in the championship standings.

The 23-year-old won last season at Mondello but will have to overcome VX Racing team-mates Yvan Muller – who has an impressive record at the track.

Turkington said: “Mondello is probably my favourite event of the year as I have lots of people I know at the track.

“The VX Racing Astra Sport and Hatch worked well at the last event and hopefully we can transfer this over to Mondello.

“Both circuits are quite twisty and very technical, so I will be hoping for a repeat of the podium finishes at the very least.

“I came to VX Racing to win, now I have got one under my belt I want more.”

Muller, who is third in the standings and closing in on leader Matt Neal, added: “The strong result helped in the championship and we still have half the season left. Morale is good and I hope we can keep it going.

“We are strong, but you don’t know about the others and whether their development will come into play.

“Mondello is a good track for me, and I will focus on my race plan and continue to develop the VX Racing Astra Sport Hatch, not what the other teams are doing.”

VX Racing’s third driver, Gavin Smith, is also looking for local support to help him gain points this weekend.

The Dubliner said: “Mondello is a great track and only about 40 minutes from where I live, so I hope to have a lot of local support.

“I have had good results there, in fact my first ever car race was on the old circuit in 1998.

“With every race and practice session, we understand the new VX Racing Astra Sport Hatch more, and it is now only small adjustments we need to make to the balance.

“At Mondello we will be looking to get some strong finishes to add to the VX Racing points tally.”