KCMG’s guest entry Mike Halder took a composed victory in the TCR Europe finale at Barcelona, with eighth enough to seal the crown for Mikel Azcona on home soil.
Though the Spaniard was passed late on by chief title rival Jean-Karl Vernay and the Peugeot 308 of Julien Briche, he did enough to seal the first title for a CUPRA-badged car.
The TCR Germany regular bested pole-sitter Peter Terting’s Hyundai i30 N TCR off the line and from thereon in never looked threatened at the front.
A collision between Dusan Borkovic and Attila Tassi at the final chicane reduced Teams’ title rivals KCMG and Target Competition to two cars apiece, and with Files in sixth the Honda outfit duly secured the crown by 22 points.
Daniel Nagy’s bold move on the outside of Terting at Turn 1 – despite contact – proved enough for the Hungarian to end the year on a high in second.
2017 British Touring Car Champion Ash Sutton rounded out the podium in the WestCoast Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI after resisting late pressure from FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) regular Norbert Michelisz.
Terting would eventually take fifth, holding on whilst Files and Vernay fought tooth-and-nail over sixth behind, the Brit holding on despite on close moment over the kerbs at Turn 2.
Ultimately for 2017 TCR International Champion Vernay, the move past Azcona proved too late for the Audi Sport racer to make any further progress, though a points finish for Azcona settled the matter nonetheless.
He will, however, take some solace in being crowned the TCR Benelux Champion in the process after a poor double header for Maxime Potty.
Azcona’s eighth place got the Spaniard over the line at the 2.8 mile Catalan circuit, with Stian Paulsen’s CUPRA a weekend-best ninth and Reece Barr rounding out the points once more for Target.
A trademark blast through the field from Stefano Comini deserved points, but ultimately the Honda Civic Type R racer could rise no higher than 11th on the fringes.
Pyro Motorsport’s Ollie Taylor rounds out the British contingent, with the TCR UK Vice-Champion coming home 17th.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 909 | Mike HALDER |  |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 12 | 25:17.363 | 1:55.455 | 2 |
| 2 | 999 | Dániel NAGY |  |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 0.408 | 1:55.353 | 3 |
| 3 | 116 | Ashley SUTTON |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 1.518 | 1:54.971 | 4 |
| 4 | 555 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 1.869 | 1:55.605 | 5 |
| 5 | 15 | Peter TERTING | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 6.484 | 1:56.055 | 1 |
| 6 | 99 | Josh FILES | |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 12 | 6.742 | 1:56.027 | 8 |
| 7 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 6.870 | 1:55.805 | 12 |
| 8 | 25 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 7.292 | 1:56.125 | 7 |
| 9 | 34 | Stian PAULSEN |  |
Stian Paulsen Racing | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 13.916 | 1:56.166 | 14 |
| 10 | 8 | Reece BARR |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 14.236 | 1:56.137 | 11 |
| 11 | 42 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Autodis Racing by THX | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 12 | 14.731 | 1:56.710 | 25 |
| 12 | 23 | Francisco ABREU |  |
Sports & You | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 17.328 | 1:56.532 | 18 |
| 13 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 17.614 | 1:56.870 | 15 |
| 14 | 126 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 18.330 | 1:56.875 | 20 |
| 15 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKY |  |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 12 | 18.610 | 1:57.211 | 24 |
| 16 | 88 | Maxime POTTY |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 19.538 | 1:57.137 | 13 |
| 17 | 32 | Ollie TAYLOR | |
Pyro Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 12 | 22.805 | 1:57.036 | 16 |
| 18 | 27 | Enrique HERNANDO | |
Sports & You | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 29.697 | 1:57.695 | 31 |
| 19 | 17 | Martin RYBA |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 30.334 | 1:57.863 | 26 |
| 20 | 21 | Marie BAUS-COPPENS | |
JSB Compétition | CUPRA TCR DSG | 12 | 33.190 | 1:57.896 | 30 |
| 21 | 111 | Nikola MILJKOVIĆ |  |
LEIN Racing | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 55.806 | 2:00.731 | 28 |
| 22 | 4 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | + 1 LAP | 1:56.137 | 10 |
| R | 22 | Petr FULÍN |  |
Fullin Race Academy | CUPRA TCR | 9 | DNF | 1:57.699 | 23 |
| R | 28 | Jean-Laurent NAVARRO | |
MN Développement | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:59.853 | 29 |
| R | 38 | Danny KROES |  |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 2 | DNF | 2:07.719 | 22 |
| R | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 2 | DNF | 2:06.817 | 6 |
| R | 11 | Jens Reno MØLLER |  |
Reno Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 2 | DNF | 2:10.810 | 21 |
| R | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 9 |
| R | 223 | Nathanaël BERTHON | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 17 |
| R | 5 | Klim GAVRILOV |  |
LTA Rally | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 19 |
| R | 35 | Munkong SATHIENTHIRAKUL |  |
Monlau Competición | CUPRA TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 28 |
| NS | 94 | Kris RICHARD | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | – | DNS | N/A | – |