Pierre-Yves Corthals set to race Opel Astra in TCR International Series

2016 TCR Europe Trophy champion and TCR Benelux runner-up Pierre-Yves Corthals is set to be confirmed as part of a two-car line-up by the Belgian DG Sport Compétition team, who will race the Opel Astra in the 2017 TCR International Series season.

The team will be the first to campaign the Opel Astra full-time in the TCR International Series, after Target Competition aborted their programme in 2016 and focussed on the TCR Germany series instead with Honda.

Corthals, and his co-driver Frédéric Caprasse, took the Opel Astra TCR to six victories in the inaugural TCR Benelux series drivers’ championship, missing out to Boutsen-Ginion Racing’s Stéphane Lémeret for the title, who had support from a slew of top line stars from Honda’s international line-up including Tiago Monteiro, Matt Neal and Norbert Michelisz.

The Belgian team will make the jump up to the international stage in 2017 with two Astra TCRs, with technical support from Opel Performance and technical partner Kissling Motorsport, with negotiations ongoing for the second driver while Corthals finalises his budget for the campaign.

“I must admit that I am proud of the trust that Opel Motorsport have placed in us,” said Christian Jupsin of DG Sport Compétition. “It’s a wonderful reward for the hard work put in by the entire team. We will be taking on the TCR International Series 2017 with the same objective that has always been ours up until now, in fact in all the championships that we have ever competed in: we will be out to play a leading role as quickly as possible.”