A long and race-packed season has come to an end for WestCoast Racing with a podium finish in the TCR Europe finale in Barcelona this weekend.

After having wrapped up the drivers and team title in TCR UK on top of a full season in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship WestCoast Racing brought its three Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR to Barcelona for an appearance in the TCR Europe finale. Joining the teams’ two ordinary drivers Andreas och Jessica Bäckman for this weekend was 2017 BTCC Champion Ashley Sutton. This was Suttons first international TCR race outside UK and the first appearance in the Volkswagen as well as at the Catalunya circuit. He quickly came to terms and followed up a fourth place in the first race with a podium finish in the second race finishing third.
”I played it a bit safe in the first race as this is a new championship for me”, Ashley says. We just wanted to bring it home but for the second race we changed our plan of attack and pushed on. It’s my first international race and there have been a lot of things to get used to but even though we had less tyres and had a heavier car it was a strong weekend. I’m obviously very satisfied with the experience and the weekend. The car has been mega and WestCoast has made me feel at home so it’s fantastic.”

For team manager Dick Jönsson Wigroth this was the end of a long season where the team has been racing full programmes in both Scandinavia and UK and finishing it off with the appearance in TCR Europe. In addition to Ashley Sutton scoring a podium he also saw Andreas and Jessica Bäckman finishing off a strong rookie season in car racing with a 12th and 13th and 14th and 15th position respectively from the two races.
”It’s been a challenging season for the team with so many races but I’m very happy how faultless they have been”, Dick says. ”It feels very good to be able to finish the season with a podium finish here in Barcelona. We enjoyed our weekend in TCR Europe and it answered a lot of questions for us regarding next year. It was also great to work with Ashley, he quickly adjusted to the team and was very professional which helped us get a lot out of this weekend so a big thanks to Ashley. I also want to mention Andreas and Jessica, it’s easy to forget they are doing their rookie season in car racing this year but they go from strength to strength and as always developed and improved throughout the weekend. This was a good end to a very busy season for us and we now look to next year and our plans for where to race in 2019.”

Results from the TCR Europe weekend in Barcelona can be found here:

http://europe.tcr-series.com/index.php/events/item/circuit-de-barcelona-catalunya