Fox Motorsport will move into touring car racing at the next round of the TCR UK series next month, when it enters a Honda Civic Type-R for Nick Halstead in the Touring Car Trophy at Donington Park.
The Essex-based team has previously competed in series such as the International GT Open, 24H Series, British GT Championship and the Ginetta GT5 Challenge.
It will now make a foray into touring car racing with reigning Ginetta GT5 Am champion Nick Halstead in the Touring Car Trophy, for a three-round programme at Donington Park on June 22, Brands Hatch on July 27 and the season finale back at Donington Park on October 20.
“I’m tremendously excited about my touring car debut as it’s something I’ve been working towards with Fox Motorsport for a little while,” said Halstead, 47. “It’s an ambition of mine to race touring cars and the Touring Car Trophy is an excellent and accessible way of stepping into this kind of racing in the UK.
“We’re not doing a full season, so our aim will be to get ourselves into a position to challenge for strong results, though I admit Donington is going to be pretty intense with being on double-duty.
“There are some experienced drivers in TCR UK and the battles at Oulton Park looked fierce, but we have a great team and we’re excited.”
Halstead will be continuing in the GT5 Challenge alongside his touring car début, meaning he will have to race five times across the two-day event at Donington next month as the two series take place on the same weekend.
Team Principal Paul McNeilly is expecting the team to fare well on it’s touring car début due to the experience that the team personnel bring from other series.
“This is an exciting moment for the team,” said McNeilly. “We’ve mainly specialised in GT racing with rear-wheel-drive cars, but we have plenty of team members with experience of World and British Touring Cars, so that should lessen the learning curve a bit.
“The FK2 Honda has won something like 15 TCR titles globally, so there’s clear pedigree with the car and you can see from the build quality that it’s the perfect car for us right now.
“It’s been great to have worked with Nick right from the start of his journey into racing and to have helped him become a championship-winning driver in GT5s, so we’re very pleased to take this next step with him.”