Ollie Taylor described his first race in the TCR Europe series at Monza as ‘awesome’ after the Pyro Motorsport driver finished just outside the points in 11th in a ‘chaotic’ first race on Saturday.
Taylor, who is currently vying for the inaugural TCR UK title, is making two appearances in he European TCR series to end his racing season, with Monza being his first touring car race outside the UK.
Having qualified in just 19th, after admitting he could have gone quicker, Taylor made progress through the pack in race one, in part due to clashes ahead of him, to take his Honda across the finishing line in 11th position.
“It was frantic, it was chaotic, it was madness – there was so much going on – but ultimately it was awesome,” said Taylor to TouringCars.Net. “I’m really pleased to have brought the car home relatively undamaged.
“I just bided my time – I could see what was going to happen with people banging wheels everywhere. I think I only made two overtakes; the rest were just other people coming together and then being on the go-slow or knocking each other off.
“There were two safety cars which massively helped, and I had the two best restarts I’ve ever had. It was just proper racing – close, frantic racing.”
Taylor praised the caliber of the drivers on the grid and was slightly frustrated not to have finished even higher, after admitting that he botched his qualifying performance which left him having to fight back from 19th on the grid in the race.
“Qualifying didn’t go well – we didn’t display our pace as we should have been 12th and it was my mistake. But ultimately we just wanted to suck it and see what happens – so I’m very happy.
“It is hard – there are 28 guys out there who are all good; even the guys at the back are good. I think we can go better, but ultimately on our pace, 11th in the middle of the pack, [just outside] the top third, is a great result.
“To finish race two will be the main thing. If I start 19th again then I’m ten cars closer to [Jean-Karl] Vernay, [Mikel] Azcona and [Josh] Files.
“But the main thing is to finish and to enjoy it as much as I did race one, and if we can get back to the top ten then it would be a great result.”