Irishman Max Hart will move to the TCR Europe series for the 2025 season, joining Target Competition in switching to the European series.
Hart, 23, first competed in TCR in 2020 when he took part in TCR UK in a CUPRA TCR, challenging for the title.
He continued in the UK in 2021, switching to Hyundai machinery and continuing to rack up podium finishes.
In 2022, after taking his TCR UK win tally to four, he put in a title-challenging run in the first half of the year, before a spare of retirements and mechanical issues curtailed his campaign in a points-less second half of the season.
For 2023, Hart moved to the competitive TCR China championship, sticking in a Hyundai, and scored a podium in Shanghai and a win on the streets of Macau in the season finale.
He continued to race with Z.Speed in Asia in 2024, this time with in TCR Asia, and scored two victories in a title-challenging campaign that saw him finish in third overall in the standings, being pipped to the runner-up spot after a troublesome Macau weekend.
He will now race in the top regional TCR series when he makes his TCR Europe début in 2025.
“I’m really excited to be joining the TCR Europe series this year,” said Hart. “One of the main reasons to do this series is to try and get to the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour, and the tyre award and entry support is a really, really great incentive.
“I’m fantastic on the sims at the European circuits, but I haven’t driven at any of them in real life!
“However, it doesn’t make much of a difference to a racing driver though, you’re either fast or you’re not fast, and you can adapt pretty quickly.
“I am a fan of Hyundai, I know the car really well. The package we’ve got this year is absolutely perfect – with the Elantra, and to be with Target Competition, a championship-winning team in TCR Europe, where Target has a lot of past experience as well. I believe it’s a match made in heaven.”
Target Competition also returns to TCR Europe, following an absence stretching back to the Paul Ricard event in 2023 when the South Tyrol-based team withdrew from the series in protest at the straight-line speed of the Audis.
Target won the inaugural TCR championship in 2015 and has been a regular in multiple series, having also won the ultra-competitive 2019 TCR Europe title with Josh Files in Hyundai machinery.