Honda touring car ace Néstor Girolami will make a surprise TCR Europe debut at Circuit Paul Ricard this weekend, driving the PSS Racing Team’s Honda Civic Type R.
The 31-year-old Argentine, who is part of Honda’s line-up in WTCR, replaces regular driver Viktor Davidovski because travelling from North Macedonia to France is not allowed under the government restrictions for COVID-19.
Davidovski and several team members applied for exemptions to allow them to enter France. The requests were denied on Wednesday, leading to the appointment of Girolami – who has worked with the team in a coaching capacity. The car that Girolami will race is a brand-new Civic Type R, which has been based at JAS Motorsport since its construction and will be run with the support of JAS technical staff this weekend.
Girolami brings a wealth of experience and success to PSS for the weekend. The two-time champion of Argentina’s Super TC2000 became a race winner in the FIA WTCC in 2017 and made his WTCR debut last year. He became the first driver to win back-to-back races in the WTCR at the Hungaroringl and led the championship early on thanks to three early-season victories. He also completed a clean sweep of wins in TCR Australia on a one-off visit to Sandown last September.

“I’m so happy to have the opportunity to race in TCR Europe this weekend, to work with PSS Racing Team, and to show the potential of the Honda Civic Type R in this hugely-competitive series. I am proud to be part of the Honda Racing family, and when your family asks for your help, you do whatever you can. It’s been eight months since I last raced and is still nearly four weeks until WTCR begins, so to have the chance to use this event as a warm-up – against such a high-quality line-up of drivers and teams – will be extremely good for me,” said Girolami

Aleksandar Todorovski, PSS Team Manager, said: “I can’t believe we’ve been so lucky. The situation looked quite impossible earlier this week, but our vision is that nothing is impossible, and we’re extremely proud of the friendships and bonds that have led to this. We could not have put this together without the help and support of JAS Motorsport, Honda Racing WTCR and, most of all, our friend and coach, Néstor Girolami. To have a world-renowned driver leading the way for a Macedonian team in Europe’s biggest TCR championship is something that makes us feel very good. We’re super-excited. Vamos Néstor!”

Picture: TCR Australia