Racers with Hyundai Motorsport win WTCR for the first time

Hyundai Motor Group announced on Sunday that its road-going Elantra N TCR, domestically known as the N TCR, topped the 2022 FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) at Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia both in the individual driver and team sectors over the weekend (local time).

Spanish car racer Mikel Azcona on the BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse driving the Elantra N TCR not only won the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 8th competitions this season but also earned eight points in the preliminaries in Saudi Arabia, confirm‎ing his winning in this year’s individual driver sector regardless of the final race results. Driving Cupra’s models from 2019 to 2021, the Spanish car racer ranked 6th to 7th on the list. His ascent to the top of the race came right after he switched to Hyundai this year.

Boosted by Azcona’s great performance, the BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse also garnered the winner’s trophy among the participating teams, making it the first team to win the championship for the whole season thanks to Hyundai Motorsport’s racing cars. In the individual driver sector, the i30 N TCR brought victory to Gabriele Tarquini in 2018 and Norbert Michelisz in 2019, respectively.

With car manufacturers not allowed to join the WTCR, professional racers buy racing cars from such brands to run the race. Late in 2017, it was created based on the integration of the TCR International Series and the World Touring Car Championship.


hee@donga.com