New Honda team is the first entry in the 2024 FIA TCR World Tour
New outfit GOAT Racing will compete in the new KUMHO FIA TCR World Tour in 2024, running a pair of the latest generation Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCRs, with the team’s drivers to be confirmed at a later date.
Last year, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) customer car builders JAS Motorsport ran one driver for the full season, the Argentinian Néstor Girolami, and utilised the “touring” concept of the series by having him drive with a different team depending which leg of the calendar he was in — such as Estonian squad ALM Motorsport at the TCR Europe and Italy rounds, Squadra Martino in South America, Wall Racing in Australia, and finally with China Touring Car Championship squad MacPro Racing at the Macau Guia Race.
This year, GOAT Racing, run by Rubén Fernández, who along with his brothers Felipe and Víctor has competed with Audi RS 3 LMSs across a number of TCR categories with his Auto Club RC2 Vallés team, will run a full-time programme in all rounds, which means the drivers will be competing with the same engineering team and cars at each event.
The team has also confirmed its team manager for the programme, former FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) and TCR star Pepe Oriola, who won the inaugural TCR South America series in 2021 driving a Honda Civic for W2 Pro GP, and was a race winner in the 2022 TCR Europe series with Brutal Fish Racing, before the team with decided to leave mid-season, and he completed the season with Team Aggressive Italia in a Hyundai Elantra N TCR.
Since then, Oriola has switched from driver to a much sought-after advisor, working with Aggressive, as well as Auto Club RC2 Vallés (now GOAT Racing) over the past two years providing driver coaching and advice. Oriola now reunites with Honda and JAS Motorsport for 2024.
Drivers-turned-team managers is quite common, with Yvan Muller having performed the same role with M Racing in the 2018–2019 TCR Europe seasons, and with 2009 WTCC and 2018 WTCR champion Gabriele Tarquini having taken on the role of team manager at BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse over the last two years, and guiding them to two consecutive drivers’ titles.
