After a horror start to the season, Subaru is finally getting their new Levorg sports tourer BTCC race cars dialled in, after romping home with their first 1-2 finish.

At first appearances, the Levorg might seem like an unusual choice of car to try to turn into a hard core racer; but looks can be deceptive.

Under the skin of the Silverline BMR Racing Subaru Levorg is an exceptional chassis and a much shorter wheelbase than you might think. And while the pioneering efforts of not only building, but also testing an all new car from the ground-up – scratch-built – is no short ask, it seems that the hard work behind the scenes is finally starting to pay off.

Colin Turkington who is called the “King of Croft” showed why he gets the nickname. The Silverline Subaru BMR Racing driver piloted the Subaru Levorg race car to another victory at Croft, after finding success at Oulton Park in early June. This wasn’t only his first win in a Subaru in BTCC, it was Subaru’s very first win in BTCC period.

Turkington led the first race from start to finish, with Jason Plato securing second place closely behind. The one-two finish is a first for the Subaru team.

Colin started the race in pole position, his second in back-to-back races, and was in command for the duration despite having to contend with BMR teammate Plato who was pushing his own Subaru Levorg to the verge of its very limits. There were also three safety car interruptions and an early attack from fellow front-row starter Daniel Lloyd.

“They certainly didn’t make that one easy for me,” said Turkington. “It was the kind of race where you need to remain 100 percent focused right to the end. To have three safety car periods is quite unusual, and with the tire pressures dropping at the lower speeds, I had to carefully manage all the re-starts which was tricky. With Jason not far behind either, there was absolutely no margin for error, but the team gave us both a fantastic car so massive credit to them all.”

Subaru is known for their all-wheel-drive race cars. However this racer was yet another first for Subaru. BMR had to convert the all-wheel-drive Levorg wagon to rear drive. “It can be easily developed into rear-wheel drive to comply with the BTCC regulations so we can’t wait to see how it goes against very established competition.” And with Subaru committing to a three year agreement with the team, the tables are finally turning in a good way for the Japanese automaker.

WATCH THE FULL BTCC RACES ONLINE FOR FREE, RIGHT HERE ON ITV: British Touring Cars Championship | BTCC - Sport











For more information on Subaru locally, visit:
Subaru Australia: http://www.subaru.com.au
Subaru 2017 Levorg: http://www.subaru.com.au/new-levorg