Pyro Motorsport and Ollie Taylor have confirmed that they will embark on a two-part journey in the TCR Europe Series, taking part in the two final rounds at Monza and Barcelona.
A front-running regular in the TCR UK Series, Taylor won’t let his European ambitions get in the way of domestic sporting priorities however. As well as racing in Italy and Spain, the Pyro Motorsport crew will also see out the remainder of the 2018 TCR UK championship, with Taylor still in the hunt for title glory.
Admittedly, with a 78-point margin to make up on championship leader Dan Lloyd, that particular hunt will prove to be a difficult one. Nonetheless, with 182 points still on offer at Croft and Donnington Park, the tussle is far from over.
In Europe, Taylor will drive his tried-and-tested Honda Civic Type R TCR, making him the third TCR UK driver to race their car abroad this year – the other two drivers being Swedish siblings Andreas & Jessica Backmann (who run a tandem campaign alongside TCR Scandinavia commitments).
For Taylor, this late-season European excursion will act as a way of testing himself against the TCR Europe regulars, as he and Pyro Motorsport begin to consider their future sporting options.
For now though, Taylor appears to have enjoyed his time racing on home shores: “I have to say that I’m really enjoying competing in TCR UK. This year has been a great introduction to racing in a front-wheel drive car for me and it’s something I definitely want to keep on doing.”
“The idea of going to Monza and Barcelona is basically to see how we’ll fare against the TCR Europe drivers. Our pace in the UK means we think we could do well against some of the Europe guys, but you never know for sure until you actually race against them. It’s a new challenge and I’m very excited about the fact that I can see for myself how I fare against them. It’ll also mean that we’ll know how much work we have to do over the winter.”
Jonathan Ashman, TCR UK Promoter, added: “We’ve said right from the outset that UK drivers will be able to use their cars in other championships, which is one of the strongest aspects of competing in TCR. I’m delighted to see Pyro Motorsport and Ollie Taylor have taken this on board and I’m sure they’ll represent us well in Monza and Barcelona, particularly since they’ll be using the same Yokohama tyres that they already know so well from TCR UK.”
