Experienced touring car driver Alexei Dudukalo will join the TCR International Series grid in Sochi, Russia at the wheel of a SEAT León Racer with Team Craft-Bamboo Lukoil.
The Russian is currently competing in the Russian Circuit Racing Series in a TCR-specification SEAT, where he is currently leading the touring car category.
Dudukalo has previously raced in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) at the wheel of an older model S2000-spec León in 2011 and 2012, where he took his only podium finish in Slovakia in 2012. The 38-year-old was infamously dropped by LADA in 2013 when he crashed heavily into his team-mate in qualifying for the opening race of the season.
Dudukalo is looking forward to his first race in TCR and has praised the series as being on the rise at the moment.
“I’m glad to participate in the Sochi event; it’s like a homecoming for me, as I know a lot of guys from my WTCC years,” said Dudukalo. “TCR is on the rise now, races are filled with a spirit of wheel-to-wheel fighting and that’s what the drivers and fans like most!”
Dudukalo’s appearance in the Series means at least three Russians will be represented on the grid for the first-ever TCR race in Russia, along with Sergey Afanasyev and Mikhail Grachev.