Craft-Bamboo Racing head to Valencia this weekend for a ‘home race’ of sorts in the TCR International Series, with Jordi Gené and Pepe Oriola both taking part in their home race.
In addition, the event is the home race for SEAT, with Craft-Bamboo option to compete with the Spanish manufacturers’ León cars in the inaugural TCR season.
Oriola is the team’s lead driver in the championship, with the Spaniard currently fourth overall after taking a brace of podiums in the season opener in Malaysia.
“This is my home race so I really want to do my best, for the fans and also for my championship,” said Oriola. “I am still close to the leaders so I really need to work hard to get some good results in Valencia.
“I am confident in the car’s ability but the competition will be tough, I will need to work really hard on my qualifying time so I can get a good start which will be crucial for my challenge in Valencia.”
Like Oriola, experienced tin top racer Gené is also competing on home soil this weekend. Gené scored the team’s first win in race two in Malaysia, but a more challenging Shanghai weekend saw him pick up just seventh and tenth placed finishes in the two races.
“It feels good to be back in Spain and I am really excited for Valencia because it is a circuit I am familiar with and I know it will be a good race for the fans,” said Gené. “I hope that we don’t suffer any of the same issues we did in Shanghai but the team have been working hard and it is a circuit that fits very well with the SEAT León. I am confident that we can return to the form that was seen in Malaysia.”
The team’s third SEAT is driven by Russian Sergey Afanasyev, who picked up just one point in China with a tenth placed finish in race one and is looking forward to a stronger weekend in Spain.
“It was frustrating not being able to properly challenge the other drivers on the grid in Shanghai so I am looking forward to this weekend in Valencia to get back out there,” admitted Afanasyev. “The team has worked really hard on preparing my car for this round and I believe that enough has been done to make us competitive once again.”
Craft-Bamboo Team Principal Richard Coleman expects to be able to challenge closer to the front at the first European TCR event.
“It was unfortunate that we suffered some problems in Shanghai that prevented us from challenging the leaders but this is a new round and the cars have been prepped once again, so we are positive that improvements will have been made,” said Coleman. “We are back in Europe and onto some more familiar circuits, there is still a lot of work to do over the coming month, but the entire team is putting in everything they’ve got.”