Norwegian racer Stian Paulsen will remain in the TCR Europe series for the second consecutive season in 2019, once again campaigning a CUPRA TCR for his self-run outfit.
The 31-year-old stepped up to TCR racing in 2017 when he took part in European rounds of the TCR International Series. In 2018 he moved to the European TCR competition, peaking with a second-place finish at the Hungaroring in July.
“It has been very hard to put together the programme, because I had a difficult winter,” explained Paulsen. “I had to move to a new workshop and refurbish it. So I had not much time to think about racing and lost my sponsors.
“So, it’s not the best moment for racing, but I will try to manage. I will take this as a transition season for keeping on just learning and prepare better for 2020.”
Paulsen tried to do a deal with another team to help him run his programme in 2019, as he had previously been struggling with logistics during 2018. In the end, he will continue to run as part of his own Stian Paulsen Racing team.
“This winter I built up a damaged Sprinter [van] I bought, and from now on we have to run with two Sprinters to the races to not be overweight.
“I worked for a long time to do a deal with another team, as I had these challenges, but now I will continue as before with my own team.”
Last year Paulsen was classified ninth overall in the drivers’ championship standings.