Born in Newry on 21st March 1982, Colin Turkington grew up in Portadown. He attended Portadown College and went on to graduate with a BA Hons in Business Studies from Stirling University.
He now divides his time between his home in Portadown and Surrey in England where is a member of the UK based motorsport team West Surrey Racing.
Colin had his first drive at the age of 10 in an Escort van in his father’s yard in Portadown (his father Trevor is a well known businessman in Portadown who also raced karts and rally cars). Colin started racing karts for fun and at age 15 progressed into racing cars.
- Early career (1993-1997): successful placings in Northern Ireland Karting Club Championships and Down Autograss Championships.
- 1998: winner of Northern Ireland Metro Association Championship.
- 1999: At age 17 he began racing in the Ford Credit Fiesta Zeta Championship which he won in 2001.
- 2002: moved on to compete in the British Touring Car Championship as part of the team at West Surrey Racing in a 'satellite' independent MG squad backed by the pop group Atomic Kitten.
- 2003: ‘Team Atomic Kitten’ dropped, and the MG works team expanded to three cars to accommodate Colin.
- 2004: team loses official MG backing but Colin finished sixth overall, adding another win to his tally at his home circuit of Mondello Park, with WSR claiming third in the team’s championship.
- 2007: WSR team run BMW E90 320si with Colin Turkington, using the name Team RAC following a continued sponsorship deal with The RAC. Since then Colin has continued to rise to forefront of the sport. His first win (and BMW’s first in the BTCC for over a decade) came in round 4 at Croft, where he also took a third place finish. He also won the Independent Championship in the new BMW 320si
- 2007: Another highlight that year was Colin competing as a wild card in the Brands Hatch and Macau rounds of the World Touring car Championships, finishing third in the first race and fourth in the second. In Macau he finished 14th and eighth in the two races – the first time a privateer racer got a podium in a world race.
- Future Aims: Winning the British title – Team RAC have been consistent fore runners since 2006
