Fox Motorsport enter Touring Car Trophy with Ginetta champion Halstead

Fox Motorsport will take on an exciting new challenge next month as they debut in the Touring Car Trophy at Donington Park.

The international GT race-winning team from Maldon, Essex, have entered a Honda Civic Type R TCR in the TCR UK category for reigning Ginetta GT5 Am champion Nick Halstead.

What is currently a three-round programme with the JAS Motorsport-built Civic begins at Donington on June 22, continues at Brands Hatch on July 27 and concludes with the season finale back at Donington on October 20.

The event represents a first step into touring car racing for Fox Motorsport; who have won races in championships such as the International GT Open, 24H Series, British GT Championship and Ginetta GT5 Challenge.

Nick, from Andwell, near Basingstoke, began racing in 2017 in GT5s with Fox in a Ginetta and has moved up to the series’ Pro category after taking four Am wins last year on his way to becoming class champion.

He is also a race-winner in the CSCC’s New Millennium Series and has gained experience in front-wheel-drive machinery by contesting four Citroen C1 enduros over the past year with a best finish of third in a 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps.

The 47-year-old will combine his debut weekend in the Infosum and ThoughtRiver-backed Civic Type R TCR with his assault on the GT5 Challenge – which shares the bill at Donington – meaning he will race five times across the two-day event.

Nick Halstead said: “I’m tremendously excited about my touring car debut as it’s something I’ve been working towards with Fox Motorsport for a little while. It’s an ambition of mine to race touring cars and the Touring Car Trophy is an excellent and accessible way of stepping into this kind of racing in the UK. We’re not doing a full season, so our aim will be to get ourselves into a position to challenge for strong results, though I admit Donington is going to be pretty intense with being on double-duty. There are some experienced drivers in TCR UK and the battles at Oulton Park looked fierce, but we have a great team and we’re excited.”

Paul McNeilly, Team Principal, said: “This is an exciting moment for the team. We’ve mainly specialised in GT racing with rear-wheel-drive cars, but we have plenty of team members with experience of World and British Touring Cars, so that should lessen the learning curve a bit. The FK2 Honda has won something like 15 TCR titles globally, so there’s clear pedigree with the car and you can see from the build quality that it’s the perfect car for us right now. It’s been great to have worked with Nick right from the start of his journey into racing and to have helped him become a championship-winning driver in GT5s, so we’re very pleased to take this next step with him.”

Photos: Jakob Ebrey