BTCC points leader Colin Turkington hits back at BMW RWD criticism
British Touring Car Championship leader Colin Turkington has hit back at suggestions that the rear-wheel-drive cars in the series should be slowed down.
Turkington moved to the top of the points race with two wins at Oulton Park last weekend in his RWD BMW 125i M Sport.
Rivals, , have argued the BMWs and Audis now need to be reigned in, but the 2009 BTCC champion believes that is premature.
"It's a bit early in the season for that sort of talk," Turkington told AUTOSPORT.
"This was the first weekend we've shown that sort of performance. The conditions have just been perfect for us.
"We've seen before that Honda is difficult to beat at Thruxton; the BMW is difficult to beat at Oulton. It's swings and roundabouts."
Turkington's WSR team boss Dick Bennetts also pointed out there are some disadvantages to running RWD.
"The FWDs can lock the differential in qualifying, which gives you better braking and better traction," he said. "You can't do that with RWD because it understeers.
"We lose a couple of tenths there and get them back at the starts, so it's equal.
"Because the [new Dunlop] tyres are harder they can lock the diff more in the races now too."
Honda (FWD) 34
MG (FWD) 17
BMW (RWD) 9
Audi (RWD) 1
Ford (FWD) 1
Toyota (FWD) 1
Volkswagen (FWD) 1
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