TCR / 16 June 2025

Halder claims landmark 40th win with Civic Type R TCR

Mike Halder became the first driver to reach 40 race wins with the Honda Civic Type R TCR with a magnificent TCR Spain double at Valencia.

And with Valencia also hosting the latest round of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour, it was another busy weekend for the JAS Motorsport-built touring car.

 

TCR Spain

Mike Halder’s pair of race wins relied on two magnificent starts. He sprinted up from third on the Race One grid to take the lead before the first corner and was never challenged at the front.

The TPR Motorsport driver did even better on Sunday, climbing from seventh to second within six corners and snatching the lead two laps after an early safety-car period came to an end.

His record 40th win in a Honda Civic Type R TCR – which increased his championship advantage – was also the 25th for TPR. Only three teams have won more races with the JAS Motorsport-built touring car than the Swedish outfit.

One of those is ALM Motorsport, whose series rookie Sten-Dorian Piirimagi qualified on pole position for the first time and led Auto Club RC2 Valles’ Victor Fernandez, Halder and Markussen Racing’s Michael Markussen in an all-Honda top four.

Piirimagi cleverly followed in Halder’s tracks to climb from 10th to second in Race Two, having finished third the previous day. Markussen went from the back of the grid to seventh in Race Two after a technical issue put him out on Saturday.

Fernandez won the Master class in both races with to close on TPR’s Rene Povlsen – third and second over the weekend – at the head of the category points while ALM’s Demir Eroge was fifth in Race One and crashed out on Sunday.

 

Kumho FIA TCR World Tour

Valencia was the centre of the TCR world last weekend as the circuit also hosted the latest round of the World Tour.

ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt scored his first podium at world level by finishing second in Race Two aboard his Civic Type R TCR; the Estonian going from seventh to fourth in a staggering single move early on. He was seventh and sixth in the other races.

Esteban Guerrieri led the championship coming into the event, but that meant he carried 40kg success ballast, making his Civic the heaviest car in the field. The GOAT Racing driver finished fourth in Race Three.

Team-mate Ignacio Montenegro was Honda’s best qualifier in fourth, but retired on the first lap on Saturday after he was driven into a tyre stack– an offence for which his aggressor was penalised.

A pair of recovery drives from way down the grid bought him to sixth and eighth while team-mates Felipe Fernandez and Marco Butti has best results of ninth and 12th.