TCR South America preview: first endurance race at Curitiba

The second event of the new TCR South America championship is a 160Km endurance race at the Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba, Brazil.
With the race format requesting a driver change some new faces are joining the series. The most famous are Tom Coronel and Esteban Guerrieri. The Dutchman will share driving duties with Rodrigo Baptista in one of the Audi RS 3 LMS cars run by Flavio ‘Nono’ Figueiredo's Cobra Racing Team, while the Argentine will join his fellow countryman José Manuel Sapag in a Honda Civic Type R entered by Squadra Martino.
Adalberto Baptista, Rodrigo’s father, will share the second Cobra Racing Audi with experienced endurance racer Alan Hellmeister, a multiple champion in the Porsche Cup Brazil.
Other pairs that have been confirmed are Sergio Jimenez-Beto Monteiro in one of the CJ Motorsport Hyundai Elantra N cars, Roy Block-Tim Lewis - fresh from their second place in the IMSA race at Lime Rock - and Fabio Casagrande-Jack Vance in the two Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce cars run by PropCar Racing Team.
Pepe Oriola is the early leader of the standings after he won both sprint races in the inagural event at Interlagos. The Spaniard will be joined at the wheel of his W2 Racing Honda Civic Type R by Brazil’s Marcelo Costa a regular competitor in the Turismo Nacional, Paulista de Marcas and Turismo 500 series. In the second W2 Racing Honda, Rafael Reis will be joined by Valdeno Brito, twice champion of the Brazilian GT.
Oriola has a 20-point lead over Paul Holton who drove one of the PropCar Alfa Romeo cars but will not take part in Curitiba. Ayrton Chorne (Squadra Martino, Honda Civic) is placed third with a gap of 28 points, while Sapag and Oriola's teammate Rafael Reis follow, one further point behind.
Live streaming of the event at www.tcr-series.com: Qualifying, Saturday at 16:00 local time (21:00 CEST); Race, Sunday at 12:00 local time (17:00 CEST)

Picture: TCR South America