Turkington claimed his 50th career victory at Oulton Park
British Touring Car Championship leader Colin Turkington says he expects "a battle to the end" in his bid for a fourth title in the series.
Turkington holds a 33-point lead at the top of the standings at the halfway point of the season.
Team BMW's new 3 Series has dominated in 2019, winning nine of the the 15 races so far, prompting calls for the team's performance to be pegged back.
However, Turkington believes it is up to the chasing teams to catch up.
"The team have done an amazing job to produce a car so good straight out of the box, it's definitely exceeded our expectations," said the Portadown driver.
"It's been really competitive up and down the grid and I'm delighted with how our year has started. We're hitting top gear at just the right time."
Turkington has won the BTCC title three times in 2009, 2014 and 2018 - one more more would take him level with Andy Rouse
Despite the protests from other outfits, Turkington says he "can't see any logic" in pegging a team back that is doing a good job.
"We've put the work in over the winter to develop a new car, which we felt would be an upgrade on the old model," said the 37-year-old.
"It has the same engine and suspension as the old car, so when you put the work in to make improvements then you deserve the rewards that come with that.
"A lot of our good weekends have come from taking advantage from difficult qualifying, we got the job done which has set up our weekend from there."
'We can't get carried away'
Despite a healthy margin at the top of the standings ahead of team-mate Andrew Jordan, Turkington believes that "you can never get carried away in the BTCC".
"In reality the others are not far away, so there's a massive amount of competition out there and never in the BTCC does a team or driver walk away with the championship," he added.
"We've just been on top of our game and the second half of the season is always tougher, but we've got those points in the bag now.
"This is not the time to take our foot off the gas, it's the time to keep pushing and work even harder.
Team BMW drivers Andrew Jordan and Colin Turkington has won nine of the 15 races so far this season between them
"I've got immense competition within the team and, to be honest, it's been like that for a few years now with Andy.
"He's been hot on my heels for the majority of the campaign, but I'm used to inter-team battles as well as taking on drivers from outside.
"Andy's driving at a very high level this season as well and there's such a long way to go.
"We're only at halfway so I'll keep trying to deliver the best for the team, and myself too. We'll see where we end up."
