While the first whispers of a potential TCR UK Series campaign for Aiden Moffat appeared a little while ago, the official announcement of Laser Tools Racing‘s dual campaign in 2018 has only just arrived.
One key feature of the TCR UK Series’ race calendar is that there are no date clashes with the British Touring Car Championship. Therefore, this leaves the door open for established teams to operate simultaneous assaults on both championships throughout the season. Motorbase Performance and Team HARD-Brisky Racing were two outfits rumoured to be doing so, with the former publicly seen testing a Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR earlier in pre-season.
However, those teams have since put their Volkswagens up for sale and supposedly canned any plans to enter the new TCR competition. There was therefore some doubt surrounding the prospects for the championship as a whole, but luckily, that hasn’t deterred one of their fellow top-flight competitors.
Famous for being Aiden Moffat’s team in the BTCC, Laser Tools Racing have confirmed that they will enter TCR UK with a pair of Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCRs for Moffat and Derek Palmer Jr – who also has BTCC experience after competing with the ill-fated Infiniti Support Our Paras Racing team back in 2015.
Moffat (a double race winner in the BTCC last season) is arguably the highest-profile name to sign up for the 2018 TCR UK Series, and will surely be an early favourite to win the drivers’ championship.
In an official statement, he said: “I briefly tested the car in Italy some months ago and I’m happy that we will be running the Alfa – it really is a very good car. It’s exciting that I’ve been asked to take part in the very first TCR Championship in the UK and am confident that I can do really well for the team.”
Aiden’s dad and Laser Tools Racing Team Principal, Bob Moffat, added: “These are exciting times for Aiden, and for Laser Tools Racing. We are mounting a serious challenge for the TCR UK championship trophy and are delighted to be retaining the services of Aiden’s race engineer Federico Turrata of Hexathron Racing Systems, who already have extensive experience in the international TCR Series. I’d also like to thank Derek Palmer Snr for all his help with this and for his valuable liaison with Romeo Ferraris in Italy.”
The first races of the 2018 TCR UK Series will be taking place at Silverstone over the Easter weekend.
