Turkington thrilled with early MG display.

Colin Turkington said he was thrilled with the early showing of the Team RAC MG ZS after qualifying on the second row of the grid for his first race back in the West Surrey Racing fold.

Turkington, returning to the team after a season with VX Racing, was fourth quickest on the time-sheets - only 0.010secs behind third placed James Thompson and less than three tenths of a second off pole sitter Tom Chilton, with the Irishman declaring himself pleased with the result afterwards.

"We're delighted, fourth overall and leading independent so it was a good day," he told Crash.Net Radio. "We've only had limited time in the car and it has had quite a few updates so we are pleased to have got this kind of speed at such an early stage. Qualifying was very close, I was P1 for a long time, but I think we have a good race car and don't have a lot to change between qualifying and the races so I we should be strong."

Since his last race for the WSR team back in 2004, the MG ZS has undercome development work ahead of the new season thanks to backing from RAC, with Turkington admitting that the car has improved in his time away.

"They guys have made changes to the chassis and the engine but fundamentally it is the same car with bits improved here and there," he said, "so it is very similar. Getting back into the car is like putting an old coat on - there are no problems. The package has improved quite and a bit and we have more from the engine although we aren't as quick as the SEAT. However, through the speed traps we are looking pretty good and that is good for the engine side of things and there are always ways to improve the chassis which we are doing and it is coming together nicely."

The second race of Sunday will bring up 100 BTCC races for Turkington since he made his debut with Team Atomic Kitten back in 2002 and while he admitted it would be nice to celebrate with a victory, Turkington said he would be happy with a win from any race on the day.

"There are points to be won in every race and I'd love to win them all," he said, "but I'm confident for the race and fingers crossed. It would be great to win that 100th race but equally I'd be pleased to go out and win the 99th!"