Mat’o Homola says the title’s the target after opening the season with pole position
Slovakia’s Mat’o Homola has fired an opening salvo after placing the Target Competition Hyundai i30 N TCR on pole position on his TCR Europe Touring Car Series debut in Hungary, and says the aim is to win this year’s championship.
Homola stepped down from the World Touring Car Cup after one year with the DG Sport Competition team, and has rejoined the top TCR series, after racing in the TCR International Series between 2016-2017, first with the B3 Racing Team in a SEAT León TCR, followed by the Opel Astra TCR with the Belgian DG Sport team in 2017.
In qualifying, Homola outpaced his Swedish team-mate Andreas Bäckman to grab pole for the first race.
My plan is to win TCR Europe, which is why I’m here with the best car and the best team,” said Homola “to TouringCarTimes.
“It’s just the first qualifying, and tomorrow’s the most important day with the races. So the result is good, but let’s see how it goes tomorrow. I’ve not had as much testing as my team-mates and I still need to get used to the car. I wasn’t happy with my pace in Q1, but we turned it around with Q2.”
Switching from the ultra-light Peugeot 308TCR, with its 1.6 litre engine, to the World title-winning Hyundai has posed more of a challenge than he expected.
“I still need to get used to the Hyundai, as it’s very different to the Peugeot and the other TCR cars I’ve driven. I’ve had some problems in the test and still need to understand the car and have had to change my driving style a lot, but qualifying shows I’ve been changing it in the right direction.”
