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Jessica Bäckman targeting top ten after strong start to the season

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Jessica Bäckman picked up a top ten finish in the first race of the 2019 TCR Europe series season at the Hungaroring, with the Swedish driver saying she’d already hit her initial goal in only her first race, and was now aiming for the top ten in the standings come the season’s end.

Bäckman, who last year raced in both the STCC and TCR UK championship, qualified her Target Competition Hyundai i30 N TCR in seventh for the first race, and recovered from a bad start to finish ninth, passing the BRC Racing Hyundai of former GP2 and IndyCar star Luca Filippi during the closing laps.

“I’m very happy with the race,” said Bäckman to TouringCarTimes. “I was disappointed with my start in Race 1 as I wasn’t’ quite prepared and lost a few positions, but I had good speed in the car and did some good overtakes, so I was happy to be top ten in my first race.”

Bäckman has switched from the Swedish WestCoast Racing team, to the Italian Target Competition squad, from South Tyrol, which run the WTCR-winning Hyundai.

“I really like this team, they’re very friendly and are helping me to improve all the time. We’ve been working very hard and I’m glad all the hard work is paying off. My first goal was to qualify in Q2, and I’ve done that in my first race with 37 cars, so that was ahead of my expectations – my goal for the end of the season is to be in the top ten in the championship.”