23-year-old Irish touring car star Max Hart will race in the 2025 TCR Europe series this season with Target Competition, with the two-time TCR Europe teams’ champions also returning to the grid.

Hart made his TCR debut in 2020 in the TCR UK championship, challenging for the title in his year in a CUPRA TCR, switching to the Hyundai i30 N TCR in 2021 where he battled for the title again, and continued to pick up four victories and 14 podium finishes. Hart then made the switch to join the highly-competitive TCR China championship in 2023, racing a new Elantra N TCR for the Shanghai-based Z.SPEED team.

Hart ended the season with a victory at the iconic Macau Guia Circuit, winning the season finale Macau Touring Car Cup race

For 2024, Hart moved from national to regional touring car competition when he joined the TCR Asia series with Z.SPEED, where he was involved in a close fight for the title with two-time Chinese touring car champion Zhang Zhen Dong, narrowly missing out at the final round.

This year, Hart joins the leading regional TCR category, TCR Europe, sticking with the Hyundai brand for a fifth consecutive season. Hart will race with the South Tyrol-based Target Competition team, who return to the grid after a near two-year absence, competing with an Elantra N TCR built by Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing.

Target Competition won the first ever TCR championship ten years ago in the 2015 TCR International Series, and also the 2019 TCR Europe series drivers’ and teams’ titles in the year when the TCR Europe series had its largest and most competitive grid to-date.

“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.”

Hart has experience racing in the United Kingdom and in Asia, but competing in mainland Europe will be new for him, though not so new for his Italian team.

“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.”