1,000 Greatest Drivers: Colin Turkington

It remains to be seen whether he'll race again, but he probably won't.

Even with my touring car model, I’ve never had a great feel for how to evaluate BTCC drivers because it seems like I have a history of rating them substantially higher than even the British-based media does like when I ranked Ashley Sutton 2nd in 2023 while Autosport ranked him 36th. I’m not sure who was closer to correct. I think it was me, but I probably overrated him since I’m probably overrating the series itself. When I was frenetically googling Turkington today (well, yesterday now) trying to come up with something for a best race, I saw a Reddit post that mentioned that almost none of the BTCC drivers were making a living (except for Turkington himself), so it’s easy to draw amateur vibes from that, and that is consistent with the series’s lack of media presence. Turkington’s YouTube channel where he just announced his retirement (?) as 1/10 of the subscribers mine does and I’m sure not raking in the dough. (I greatly appreciate my subscribers though, both here and there!) So ultimately, how you evaluate Turkington’s legacy (or any of his contemporaries) comes down to whether you take the series seriously itself or not. After calculating my touring car model, I do although it’s bizarre that he couldn’t find enough funding for a ride for three years after winning his first championship. Even if it’s an amateur series, the best amateur drivers can definitely develop professional skills, and he certainly fares well in my touring car model overall. However, he still only ranked 12th among BTCC champions in my touring car model just because his competition in that series was nowhere near what it was in the ‘90s when the BTCC was attracting major international interest from mainland European touring car stars, and I think Ashley Sutton has taken it to another level since after matching Turkington’s four titles in only eight seasons. I guess weighing everything, I’d call him a second-tier great overall from a global perspective.