The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship returns to the track this weekend (August 22/23) for Rounds 7, 8 and 9 of at Oulton Park and it is Team BMW’s Colin Turkington that holds the early initiative at the summit of the standings.

Following one weekend off, Britain’s premier motor racing series continues its busy start to the 2020 campaign with what will be the third race meeting in four weeks.

Historically, tens of thousands of spectators have descended on the Cheshire venue for the BTCC’s annual visit down the years but that will sadly not be the case for 2020 due to the event being run behind closed doors.

Chasing a historic fifth drivers’ title, Northern Irishman Turkington has made a flying start to the season, scoring wins at Donington Park and Brands Hatch GP to open up a 17-point advantage, and the four-time reigning champion has shown no signs of slowing down.

Whilst the West Surrey Racing driver has started the year in seemingly scintillating form, it remains anybody’s game to lift the biggest prize in UK motorsport and there is already a long list of challengers on the hunt for the 38-year-old’s crown.

Laser Tools Racing’s Ashley Sutton leads the hunt in second place after enjoying a strong start to the year, clinching a maiden victory for the Infiniti Q50 at the season-opener before adding a pair of podiums last time out. The challenging demands of Oulton should be well-suited to the 2017 champion.

Turkington’s team-mate Tom Oliphant has elevated his game this year and has reaped the rewards, claiming a sensational maiden BTCC win in the reverse grid race at Brands Hatch to head into his home event sitting third overall.

Oulton Park will also be home turf for Speedworks Motorsport and Toyota Corolla ace Tom Ingram will be keen to build on his first podium of the season last time out to close the gap to the top three.

Halfords Yuasa Racing’s Dan Cammish has two wins to his name so far but bad luck in the shape of two non-finishes at Brands Hatch has left him playing catch up.

Carrying less weight however will make the Honda Civic Type R driver one to watch, as will the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus of Rory Butcher who has shown blistering speeds at times.

Ollie Jackson, Stephen Jelley have all made strong starts to the season as well and find themselves rounding out the top ten however none of them can be counted out from making an impact further up the order.

Of those who will be keen to bounce back from a tough start, notable attention should be paid to the Honda trio of Josh Cook, Tom Chilton and Jake Hill, as well as the likes of Senna Proctor, Jack Goff and Aiden Moffat, amidst many more.

To view more information on this weekend’s BTCC event, click here.

All of the action from Oulton Park will be broadcast live on ITV4 on Sunday, with coverage scheduled to begin at 11:50.