Sometimes in motorsport, a young driver will arrive in a top championship and will take the series by storm. This season alone has seen Ashley Sutton make waves in the British Touring Car Championship, and last year saw Max Verstappen stun the Formula One paddock and being rewarded with a Red Bull drive as of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.
Formed in 2015, the TCR International series is blessed with their own young superstar who is a poster boy for the championship: Pepe Oriola.
Racing against drivers such as former F1 driver Gianni Morbidelli, James Nash and guest appearances from WTCC star Rob Huff and double BTCC champion Alain Menu, Pepe has proved a top-tier driver among some of the best Touring Car drivers in the world on prestigious tracks; several races even support Formula One races.
But what exactly is TCR and who is Pepe Oriola?
TCR International
Created by former World Touring Car boss Marcello Lotti, TCR is marketed as a cost-effective alternative to the WTCC. The thinking behind TCR was applying the principal of Sportscar racing’s GT3 format to Touring Cars, with a more cost effective platform for manufacturers to showcase their models.
Since the series inception, the series has attracted a multitude of different manufacturers, such as Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Subaru, Honda, Alfa Romeo, Ford, Opel (Vauxhall in the UK) and Peugeot. The teams entrusted with the cars are equally prestigious, with familiar names such as Campos Racing, Sebastien Loeb racing, WRT Racing and Leopard Racing from the Moto GP ladder.
The series regulations permit 2.0 litre turbocharged petrol or diesel engines producing up to 330 BHP, and the cars used must be 4/5 door cars at least 4.20 metres long. The cars must use either a production gearbox or a TCR specified gearbox, and the choice of gearbox decides what the minimum weight of the car has to be. Aerodynamic parts are supplied by the championship, ensuring that no team can make gains using trick parts.
This season the championship supports Formula One three times, at Bahrain, Singapore and Malaysia, with other tracks such as Spa-Francorchamps, Estoril, Imola and Macau creating a calendar consisting of some of the most stunning race tracks the world has to offer.
Entering its second season, the TCR International series is already building a reputation as on of the top Touring Car series in the world, and is more than a match for the might of the WTCC. The championship is only expanding and, with several regional series, it may not be too long until TCR has enough momentum to match that of the GT3 formula the series lays claim to being based on.
Pepe Oriola
Pepe (Full name: Josep Oriola Villa) was born in 1994 in the Catalan capital city of Barcelona, and the Spaniard was soon ready to step into karting aged nine.
He would prove reasonably successful in karts, with a top 10 finish in the 50 driver-strong Spanish Championship for KF3 karts in 2007. This was followed up by an 8th place in the CIK-FIA Asia-Pacific championship in KF3 the following year, with the eventual winner of the event being current Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz Jnr, with his new for Catalunya team mate Daniil Kvyat in second.
The young Catalan made his debut in cars at just 15 years old, competing in the 2009 Catalunya Touring Car Championship in the D2 Class, and finished a remarkable second place in the series in his rookie year out of karting. In addition, he also competed in six rounds of the SEAT Leon Supercopa Spain with Team Monlau Competicion taking a well fought podium in the process.
Monlau would allow Pepe to make his debut in endurance racing in 2010, entering him into a round of the 24 hours series, with Pepe and his teammates leaving the round victorious. In addition, the youngster and Monlau would enter the SEAT Leon Eurocup, and would prove very successful with three wins and fourth place in the overall standings.
2011 saw Pepe win his class in another endurance event, the 500km of Alcaniz, and finish second in the FIA European Touring Car cup. His performances up until this point meant that the young Catalan made history as the youngest driver to race in the FIA World Touring Car championship, at just 16 years eight months and 11 days at the Brazilian round of the championship. He added to that record by becoming the youngest ever points scorer in the series, finishing tenth in his second race to earn a solitary world championship point.
2012 saw him stay in the WTCC and took his maiden outright podium in the series at Portugal. Another podium would follow in Japan, and the youngster would find himself 8th in the championship, and 2nd in the Yokohama Driver’s championship for independent entries.
Pepe managed to go one step further in 2013, becoming the youngest ever winner in the WTCC in Morocco. Despite a win and more points than 2012, Oriola finished 9th in the driver’s championship, but beat the likes of BTCC legend James Thompson and recent WTCC champion Jose Maria Lopez.
Pepe did not start a single round in 2014, but announced his intentions to switch to the TCR International series for the 2015 season. Not even he could have known just how well the series would treat him.
One win and an astounding nine podiums meant that Pepe would finish second in the TCR International series. The Catalan was a mere two points behind eventual champion Stefano Comini, and he beat drivers such as former WTCC drivers Gianni Morbidelli and Jordi Gene, in his Team Craft-Bamboo Lukoil SEAT Leon.
Four races into 2016, Oriola lies third in the driver’s championship in the TCR International series after winning both races in Bahrain, cancelled out by two lower top 10 performances at Estoril. As the championship heads to Spa Francorchamps this weekend (6-8 May), the young Catalan will be hoping to regain the form that he had in Bahrain.
Without a doubt, Pepe is a driver who has already achieved a lot, and his resume is only going to get more impressive as he gets older. TCR have a real gem of a driver on their hands: Young, fast, exciting to watch and a real poster boy for the series.
TCR may grow in the future, but Pepe Oriola? He is certain to.
