Team WRT and Boutsen Ginion test ahead of season start

Team WRT and Boutsen Ginion Racing, the two likely title protagonists for this year’s TCR Benelux series, have been testing ahead of next week’s season opener at Spa-Francorchamps at the Zolder circuit.

Team WRT will run a Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR for Maxime Potty and Matthieu Detry, and a SEAT León TCR under the RACB National Team banner for the second year for Denis Dupont and Sam Dejonghe.

Dupont and Dejonghe were in contention for the series title for much of 2016, dropping out only in the final rounds as the DG Sport Opel of Pierre-Yves Corthals and Frédéric Caprasse challenged Boutsen Ginion’s Stéphane Lémeret, the eventual champion.

Lémeret returns for 2017 to defend his title, now carrying the #1 on his Honda Civic TCR. The Belgian had a host of top-rated co-drivers last season, including Matt Neal, Tiago Monteiro, Kris Richard and Norbert Michelisz.

For this year, Lémeret’s chief co-driver will be Dutch driver Tom Coronel for all but one round, when Coronel has clashing commitments in the World Touring Car Championship in Argentina.