WestCoast Racing had a tough season opener in TCR Europe when the championship visited Hungaroring in Hungary. The Volkswagen cars was not competitive enough to make an impact on a starting grid with 30 + TCR cars. WestCoast Racing fought their way to a few points in the season opener as it now looks to the next race.

A large starting grid with over 30 cars made for an impressive start to the TCR Europe campaign. Such a large field made qualifying and finding gaps in the traffic tricky and even more challenging for the Volkswagenteams who lacked pace this weekend. Gianni Morbidelli could only manage 16th place with team mate Olli Kangas 22nd in qualifying for the two races.

That meant they would have a challenge moving up the field in the races. Gianni Morbidelli could however manage to navigate through traffic and make the most from others mistakes to climb to a ninth place and some well deserved points in the first race. Olli Kangas was stuck in a train of cars and finished 22nd. In the second race rain made the track wet and with a majority of the field on slicks on a drying track it made for some excellent opportunities to move up. Unfortunately Gianni Morbidelli was hit by another car and was forced to retire. Olli Kangas could climb up the field and finished 16th, just one position away from the points.

Team manager Dick Jönsson Wigroth was not happy after the weekend from which he had hoped for more but could only conclude that there just was more pace in the Volkswagen cars this weekend.
”This was not the season opener we had hoped for,” Dick said. ”It’s enough to have a quick glance at the results to see that none of the Volkswagencars had the pace this weekend and with such a large starting grid that makes everything even more difficult. Gianni and Olli did everything they could given the circumstances they were given. Gianni had a great race through the field in the first race and could have had at least just a good result in the second race if he wasn’t forced into retirement. Olli just missed out on a point in the second race but both of them did all they could. We just wasn’t good enough and now we meed to find more pace for the next weekend.”

Next race in TCR Europe is at Hockenheim in Germany May 24-26th. For WestCoast Racing the next race is this weekend in Sweden and the season opener of the Carrera Cup Scandinavia at Ring Knutstorp.

Result – WestCoast Racing, TCR Europe Hungaroring:

Race 1:
Gianni Morbidelli – P9
Olli Kangas – P22

Race 2:
Gianni Morbidelli – DNF
Olli Kangas – P16