BMW British Touring Car Championship drivers Colin Turkington, Adam Morgan and Jake Hill are all due to tackle club racing endurance events this weekend.
Four-time BTCC champion Turkington will partner with West Surrey Racing stablemate Morgan and BMW Car Club committee member Paul Laramy in a trio of BMW 325ti machines to enter this weekend’s 750 Motor Club six-hour Birkett Relay race.
Turkington has previously driven a 325 on trackdays and is looking forward to a rare outing on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit and the chance to sample endurance racing.
“I’m good friends with Neil McDonald, who runs the BMW Car Club GB race series,” Turkington told Autosport of the Team BMW entry.
“Neil’s been asking me for a few years if I would like to do the Birkett but, for some reason, it hasn’t worked out in the past.
“I’m really looking forward to it – it’s an opportunity to do a bit of racing with a bit less pressure and I can just go and enjoy the event.
“I’m not quite sure what to expect; I’m not sure I’ve ever done an endurance race before – my whole career has been sprint racing.
“The relay seems like a completely unique way to go racing and hopefully the handicappers look on us favourably!”
Turkington is not the only BTCC conqueror on the entry list, however. Tim Harvey will return to the Birkett for the first time since he was part of a Chevron B8 team that enjoyed scratch success in 1986.
He will be part of a four-car squad of Suzuki Swifts, built for the 750MC’s new Swift Sport Challenge series, which also comprises Ryan and Scott Parkin, Adam Blair and Dan Silvester.
Meanwhile, recently crowned BTCC champion Hill will tackle this weekend’s Fun Cup finale - featuring an hour-long contest and a three-hour enduro - alongside Ginetta Junior frontrunner Charlie Hart.
Rookie pairings who win on their Fun Cup debut receive a £10,000 prize, and that is the target for Hill and Hart, who was third in this year’s Ginetta standings, at Oulton Park.
“I helped coach Charlie for Elite over the last three years,” Hill told Autosport.
“His dad Chris [a past Fun Cup champion] said, ‘Look, Fun Cup have put on a prize of 10 grand if a new pair come in and win a race’.
“So he was like, ‘Do you want to do it with Charlie?’ And I said I’ve always wanted to have a go at one.
“We’re just going to go and have fun. It will be really nice as well to race with a lad that I’ve coached. I’ve never done that yet, so I’m looking forward to that, and Charlie boy’s a good lad.”
