Norwegian racer Stian Paulsen will return to the TCR Europe grid at next weekend’s second event of the season at Spa-Francorchamps, racing a self-run Audi RS3 LMS TCR II.
The 38-year-old last competed in TCR Europe at the Norisring in 2022, when he stood in for Tom Coronel in the Dutchman’s Audi.
Prior to that, the last time Paulsen attempted multiple events in the same season was in 2019, when he scored an eighth-place finish as his strongest result of the TCR Europe season at the Belgian circuit.
It thus marks seven years since the affable racer last competed in TCR with his self-run team, although he has experience with the car, having owned it for two years already.
“I’m looking forward so crazily much to being back on the grid,” said Paulsen. “I’ve had this car for two years now and finally I’ve had the opportunity to come back and race with it. I’m super-happy to have got a place on the grid.
“In terms of preparation, I’ve been out twice at my local track Rudskogen, but it’s not really a track you can compare with Spa.
“It’s been four years since I last raced in TCR Europe, and the last time with my own team was in 2019, so my expectations are just to have fun! That’s my main goal, to have fun with my team and have a really nice weekend and have something to look back on as a good weekend.
“I’ve been wanting to come back for a long time. Over the last years I’ve been rebuilding a new workshop here in Norway, and now we’re at the level where I can come back and do some racing.
“I’ve missed racing every week since 2019. I’ve been doing go-karting, so I’ve been racing in a way which will hopefully help me to keep the speed up, but we’ll find out at Spa!”
More additional entries for the Belgian event are due to be announced in the coming days.