The Northern Irishman completed the triple header at the Hampshire venue with back-to-ba🅷ck sixth place finishes in the first two sixteen lap races and ended the reversed-grid sprint in fourth p𒊎osition.

Turkington has won at Thruxton previously but repeating that on Sunday past alway🗹s looked like a tall order as the conditions were well suited to front-wheel-drꦯive machinery, as was reflected in the results.

Ash Sutton stormed to two perfect scores at the wheel of his NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST while his team-mate made it a clean sweep of victories in race ꦺthree, storm♊ing through from fifth to first place.

After Thruxton and going to Oulton Park next week before the traditional summer break,🌳 three-time BTCC title winner Sutton tops the drivers’ standings on 157 points from Tom Ingram – the reigning series champion – on 145 and then Turkington who has so far netted 119 points.

“It was a big push to keep the points coming but by the third race we had made a step forward with the balance,” said. “Thruxton does chal♛lenge us and the nature of it makes moving forw൲ard difficult.

“This becomes more and m❀ore difficult the further down the pack you are, so two sixth🥀s and a fourth is a decent trio of results.”

Turkington said setting the fifth quickest time during qualifying on Saturday was the foundation that he craved to move forward and secure solid results. “Pr༒oducing a lap in qualifying was crucial because you could easily have found yourself stuck outside the points all da🎀y,” he continued.

“We weren’t pushing for wins but with what I had, I know I gave my best. Some days it is not about being extraordinary but just picking up points. A🅺nd 🦩that is a result.

“We a⭕re not out of this fight, and it will be good to get back on the differ🌺ent compounds and tyre strategies, but we need to think about what we do now to find extra speed for Oulton and beyond.”