Stian Paulsen makes his return to the grid at the next weekend of the 2026 TCR Europe Touring Car Series at Spa-Francorchamps, racing an Audi RS 3 LMS for his own team four years after his last appearance in the series.

The 38-year-old last raced in TCR at the Norisring in 2022, deputising for Tom Coronel at Comtoyou Racing who had a clashing commitment in the WTCR - FIA World Touring Car Cup. Previously Paulsen was a regular on the grid in both the TCR International Series and the early years of TCR Europe in 2018-2019 with his own race team.

Now back with a new second-generation Audi RS 3 LMS, the Norwegian is looking forward to his racing return at the famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps next weekend.

Stian Paulsen:

"I'm looking forward so crazily much to being back on the grid. I've had this car for two years now and finally I've had the opportunity to come back and race with it. I'm super-happy to have got a place on the grid.

"In terms of preparation, I've been out twice at my local track Rudskogen, but it's not really a track you can compare with Spa. It's been four years since I last raced in TCR Europe, and the last time with my own team was in 2019, so my expectations are just to have fun! That's my main goal, to have fun with my team and have a really nice weekend and have something to look back on as a good weekend.

"I've been wanting to come back for a long time. Over the last years I've been rebuilding a new workshop here in Norway, and now we're at the level where I can come back and do some racing. I've missed racing every week since 2019. I've been doing go-karting, so I've been racing in a way which will hopefully help me to keep the speed up, but we'll find out at Spa!"

The Norwegian is one of a brace of additional entries to join the TCR Europe field at the next event, with more announcements in the coming days.