Colin Turkington appears a step closer to defending his BTCC title as he was absent from the 2010 World Touring Car Championship entry list, confirmed earlier today.

Turkington had been tipped for a move to the WTCC either with British based team Bamboo Engineering or with his title winning team from last season, West Surrey Racing who it had been rumoured would enter a team in the WTCC.

However neither of these moves have materialised with WSR not on the WTCC entry list, indicating that they will once again compete solely in the BTCC. Bamboo on the other hand will field a two car team in the WTCC, for Harry Vaulkhard and Darryl O’Young, as originally announced.

Although there are other options for Turkington, today’s news makes it increasingly likely that he will line up on the BTCC grid for the opening race of the season at Thruxton on April 4th.

Photo Credit: Pete Mainey

Tom Surgay is the Porsche Carrera Cup GB correspondant for 2011. Tom's currently studying English Language with Journalism at Huddersfield University. You can contact him at tom@btcccrazy.co.uk or on twitter @tsurgay.