TCR Europe championship resumes at the Nürburgring

Following a five-week summer break, TCR Europe resumes at the Nürburgring this weekend, with the event signalling the start of a packed finale to the season that will see three race meetings crammed into a similar five-week timeframe.
Thanks to his pair of race victories at Spa, Mikel Azcona has retaken the lead of the standings, leading Franco Girolami by 30 points, with Mehdi Bennani in third place a further 17 points behind and fourth-placed Niels Langeveld another 20 points adrift. However, mathematics rather than race results will play a part in deciding the title fight, as drivers will have to drop their two weakest results.
So far, Azcona is the only driver with more than one race victory to his name, with Girolami, Bennani, Tom Coronel, and Teddy and Jimmy Clairet all having recorded wins. Several other drivers have shown potentially race-winning pace and so the likes of Nicolas Baert, Jack Young, Felice Jelmini and Langeveld will be keen to join the list of winners.
The event will mark the first apperance in TCR Europe for Łukasz Stolarczyk. The 39-year-old Polish will drive an Audi RS 3 LMS run by his own team BTC Maszyny. Stolarczyk has been a regular in TCR Eastern Europe since last year when finished 11th in the standings with a Volkswagen Golf GTI. During this season, he has claimed his first podium result: second in the second race at the Hungaroring.
Both races will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.com; Race 1, Saturday at 14:50; Race 2, Sunday at 12:45 (local times, CEST).

Picture: TCR Europe