TCR / 19 March 2025

GOAT Racing and Ignacio Montenegro to race Honda Civic Type R TCR in Kumho FIA TCR World Tour

The Honda Civic Type R will once again go for glory in the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour in 2025 as GOAT Racing today (Wednesday) announce Ignacio Montenegro as the first member of their multi-car line-up.

The Spanish outfit, who won twice and scored 12 podium finishes from 14 races last year on their way to third place in the Team’s Championship, will once again spearhead the charge for the Civic, which was named TCR Model of the Year in 2024.

Montenegro – a graduate of the JAS Motorsport Driver Development Programme – has been one of the world’s leading TCR performers over the past 18 months, winning seven individual major titles and playing a role in three more.

After becoming the youngest TCR South America Champion in 2023, he moved to Europe last year and won the overall and Junior titles in TCR Spain and the TCR Spain Winter Series, the TCR Europe Rookie title and the touring car gold medal for Argentina at the FIA Motorsport Games.

The 20-year-old now steps up to a first full season in the TCR World Tour, having contested the El Pinar and San Luis events in 2023 that also formed part of the TCR South America season.

Further members of the line-up will be revealed in the coming days and weeks.

The TCR World Tour comprises eight events on four continents, starting in Mexico City on May 2-3 and finishing on the world-renowned Macau street circuit on November 15-16.

Ignacio Montenegro said: “I’m so excited to be stepping up to the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour this year. From my first time in a touring car, my dream was to compete against the best in the world and prove that I deserved to be there. It’s happened a bit faster than I expected as this is only my third year in TCR, but I feel ready. Most of the countries and circuits on the calendar will be new to me and will add to the challenge, but I’m looking forward to it and I know that GOAT Racing and JAS Motorsport will help me to be as prepared as I possibly can be when the season starts in Mexico.”

Pepe Oriola, Team Manager, GOAT Racing, said: “We are delighted to welcome Ignacio into the GOAT Racing family. He is a driver we have had our eyes on since he won the TCR South America championship and as he has progressed as a JAS Motorsport Devolopment Driver, the natural step was was to jump into the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour with our team and compete at the very highest level of TCR competition. I’m sure that he will fit perfectly into our team and that together we will achieve our goals.”

Mads Fischer, COO, JAS Motorsport, said: “After fighting for the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour title all the way to the Macau finale last year, we’re very pleased to see the Civic Type R TCR again in the series in the very capable hands of GOAT Racing, who did a fantastic job in 2024, especially when you consider that the team didn’t even exist at the start of the year. In Ignacio Montenegro they have one of the undoubted stars of global TCR racing; a young man whose talent was clear from the first time we saw him in the Civic in the TCR South America endurance races in 2022, and whose title-winning successes once again prove the value of the JAS Motorsport Driver Development Programme, of which he was a vital part last year.”