Colin Turkington returns to World Touring Cars with WSR Chevrolet

Turkington will drive a Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T run by his long-time BTCC squad under the Team Aviva-Cofco banner.

He has made occasional WTCC outings since 2007, and took victory at Okayama in 2010. The '09 BTCC title-winner has not raced at all this season.

"It's great to be back in the WTCC and I'm really excited to be driving at Shanghai's F1 circuit," said Turkington.

"I haven't raced since the WTCC event at Tianma last year, so it will probably take a while to get the rust out of the system."

Although Turkington has previously enjoyed front-wheel drive success in the BTCC with MG and Vauxhall, he is aware that he will have to acclimatise to the Cruze quickly after several BMW-focused seasons.

"It will be the first time that I have driven the Chevrolet Cruze," said Turkington. "The last time I drove a front-wheel drive touring car was in 2006, so that's another steep learning curve."

WSR team principal Dick Bennetts added: "It's going to be a tough challenge for Colin and the team to learn a new car and a new track, but we're all looking forward to it.

"We've obtained the car from RML and they have bent over backwards to help us get everything to Shanghai in time, so we can't thank them enough."