Photo: TCR

Rally squad set for Hyundai TCR UK programme

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Spencer Sport has become the latest team to reveal plans to move into the new TCR UK Series when it launches next season.

The Welsh outfit is best known for competing in both rallycross and rallying, and campaigned cars in various classes of the British Rally Championship this year – helping Osian Pryce to four podium finishes en-route to fifth place in the standings.

The announcement of TCR UK has now provided the team with the opportunity to expand its racing activities to include a circuit programme, with the aim being to run a two-car team in the series when it gets underway at Silverstone in late March.

Having evaluated the various options available, the team has become the second in a matter of weeks to reveal the Hyundai i30 as its car of choice, with Fiesta racer Lewis Kent also set to use the car for his own programme in 2018.

“As soon as the TCR UK series was announced, we began to look into the possibility of running, ideally, a two-car team,” Spencer Sport team manager Charlie Jukes told TouringCarTimes. “Our calculations show that it’s a very cost-effective championship for both a driver and team to do, the racing is going to be close and from a commercial point of view, it’s clearly going to be a very well supported and promoted series.

“Spencer Sport has a lot of experience running the very latest spec cars in rallying and rallycross, competing at the very highest national and international level, so we’ll be able to adapt those skills to the TCR UK series. And the beauty of the TCR technical regulations means of course that we can also race in Europe and further afield in the same spec car, should a driver wish to do so.

“Through rallying, we have a very good relationship with Hyundai Motorsport – so we were immediately attracted to the i30 N TCR. It’s a very well engineered package and to win on its race debut proves it’s a very competitive car.

“We’re keen to speak to drivers – drivers who either want to win the title in 2018 and lesser experienced drivers who want to use next year to learn the series, learn the car and to then challenge for the title in 2019. We’ve already had some very interesting conversations, but our door is very much open if people want to get in touch.”