Craft-Bamboo Racing has confirmed that its driver line-up in the 2017 TCR International Series will once again consist of Pepe Oriola and James Nash, with Hugo Valente also joining the team for the forthcoming season.
Valente joins the team having spent the past five years competing in the World Touring Car Championship, including in 2016 as a factory driver for LADA.
The withdrawal of the Russian marque for 2017 gave Valente the opportunity to seek out new drives, with TCR ultimately being the series for his drive.
“I’m very excited for this new challenge, as it has been a long winter and I wasn’t sure if I would be given the opportunity to race again in 2017,” said Valente. “For me it was important to get back to the front end of the field, I wanted to be able to fight for podiums and victory at every event.
“I’ve seen the way Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing works, and to me it’s possibly the best opportunity that I’ve been given in the past couple of years. They’re established in the TCR international Series and have won the team title last year, so we’ll be the guys to beat but we definitely need to focus on bringing back both titles this year.”
Oriola continues with the Anglo Hong-Kong team for a third successive year, with the Spaniard admitting that the team feels like home to him.
“I am so excited to race with Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing again as it’s my third year in the family and it feels like a real family,” said Oriola. “With my two teammates I hope we can win the teams’ championship and finally win the drivers title too! I have to give a big thanks to SEAT for the support they are giving to me and to the team.”
Nash is entering his second full season in the series, and after finishing as runner-up in 2016 he is targeting the outright title this year.
“I am really excited to be joining Lukoil and Craft-Bamboo in the SEAT Leon Racer TCR for the second year running,” added Nash. “2016 was a great year and despite making many errors in the season we still won the teams’ championship and finished second in the drivers’.
“Obviously I would like to go one better this year and being in the same environment gives me that opportunity.”
Craft-Bamboo Racing CEO Richard Coleman believes that any of his team could end the season as the outright drivers champion – with the outfit yet to lift the coveted TCR drivers’ title.
“I would like to welcome Hugo Valente to Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing,” added Coleman. “He has shown his ability in touring cars over the past four seasons and I am sure that he will be able to adjust to the SEAT Leon fairly quickly and begin to challenge at the sharp end of the grid.
“I am proud to have James Nash and Pepe Oriola back for another season as well. They have a strong history of success with the team and I expect them to be competing at the very top of the competition in 2017 while in pursuit of both championship titles. Put simply, I think any one of our drivers is capable of winning the championship this year.”