Zengő Motorsport has signed Mikel Azcona and Gábor Kismarty-Lechner to expand its campaign in this season’s FIA World Touring Car Cup, with the duo joining Bence Boldizs in the team.
The Hungarian outfit had already confirmed 23-year-old Boldizs for the 2020 season, but it has now added 2018 TCR Europe champion Azcona and six-time national champion Kismarty-Lechner to its line-up.
The regular World Touring Car team is also set to début the all-new CUPRA Leon Competición in the world series for the first time when the season gets underway next month.
The team has been able to expand to a three-car squad because the 2020 rules allow for an expanded team if one driver, in this case Boldizs, is eligible for the new-for-2020 Rookie Award.
“Zengő Motorsport has been part of the WTCC and now the WTCR since 2010,” said Team Manager Zoltán Zengő.
“We couldn’t start for the season in 2019 but we hope we can be here during the upcoming years.
“My dream and goal is to reach a world title again with a Hungarian driver and a Hungarian team, like we did with Norbert Michelisz when he won the WTCC Trophy.
“But I will not be sad if Mikel Azcona reaches this goal as well.
“We are planning to pick up our new CUPRAs on the first week of September, which makes the start of the season even harder because we will have no time to test the cars.
“It will be a busy season with lots of work needed on the logistics. But we are looking forward to getting on track to fight and race against the other teams.”
Azcona, 24, made his WTCR début last year when he raced a CUPRA for the Swedish PWR Racing team, and now the Spaniard will move to Zengő Motorsport in a CUPRA for 2020.
“Mikel is still young but with a lot of experience,” said Zengő of Azcona, who finished sixth in last year’s standings.
“We hope to achieve big goals and good positions with him but we also need him to give his knowledge of the new CUPRA to our team and drivers because he already knows the car.”
Azcona admits that the deal to race in WTCR this year came late, and he had been preparing to sit on the sidelines in the coming season.
“I was thinking two weeks ago that I will not drive this year in WTCR but finally we made a deal with Zengő Motorsport and I feel really, really happy,” said Azcona.
“Since I finished the last season in Malaysia, I started to prepare for 2020. I know that WTCR is the highest level of touring car with many really good drivers. But I have to use this opportunity like it’s the last one.
“We will go to the first round with no testing but all the other teams are testing like normal.
“I don’t feel so bad about that because the good thing for me is that I can adapt for every moment for every track, really fast. And we have the new CUPRA, a car that has been made for WTCR.
“We finished 2019 on a really high level and that is the reason why I was very motivated to drive again in 2020 because I know the tracks, the series and I believe I can push a bit more.
“And it’s very important for me to have a home race at MotorLand Aragón.”
Kismarty-Lechner made his TCR début in the TCR Eastern Europe series earlier this year, where he has been competing with Zengő in a CUPRA.
The 43-year-old is also the reigning Hungarian Touring Car Champion and has extensive racing experience over the past two decades.
“I am nearly 44 years old and I will make my debut in WTCR this year,” said Kismarty-Lechner. “I think that my example shows it’s never too late if you have a big dream. Thank you to Zengő Motorsport for this opportunity.
“I have raced for 20 years, mainly doing endurance races but I have learned a lot driving touring cars in the last couple of years.
“I know some of the tracks and I am doing a lot of fitness, a lot of sport to be ready.
“I am a driver who is able to improve and ready to learn. I still have to learn a lot to be competitive in the WTCR world. But I am ready to learn.
“I don’t have quite big expectations from the first year but I will do my best and support my young team-mates Mikel Azcona and Bence Boldizs.”