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3

STANDINGS

SPOTLIGHT

Wandering around the TCR paddock in

Monza, a new slogan could be seen; a

slogan that perfectly captures the

‘can-do’ attitude of some of the

independent competitors who don’t

have the resources of the big teams.

The slogan was ‘TCR DNA’ and it

applied to the two SEAT León cars of

Stian Paulsen and Daniele Cappellari,

but it’s expected to pop up many more

times before the season is over.

Cappellari is a regular in the TCR Italy

series – in which he finished fifth last

year – but Monza marked his first

appearance in the International Series.

The slogan could be seen emblazoned

both along the side of car and on his

T-shirt, but both the Italian and his

Norwegian rival embodied the slogan

in almost everything they did that

weekend and beforehand.

“We are just two people, me and my

girlfriend Fabiola, and we only used a

total of four tyres over the entire

weekend,” explained Cappellari. “The

only thing I did was switch the front

tyres to the back for the second Race.

For me, the TCR International Series is

the top level of what I can do and I

TCR DNA – something

more than skin deep

the broken SEAT and the downbeat

message “I’ll be back, but I don’t know

when…” suggested that the one-week

gap before Monza wouldn’t be enough

to repair the car.

“I got back to our base in Germany

about 2am on the Saturday night,”

said Paulsen. “I didn’t get much sleep

and on the Sunday morning, I said to

myself, ‘okay, let’s see how bad the car

is’ and then I began to fix it. It wasn’t

the best preparation, but at least we

made it.”

Without the kind of budget enjoyed by

other teams, Paulsen’s team consists of

Stian himself, his mum and dad and

some friends. “We prepared the car in

Norway, but maybe we started a little

too late because we had to find the

money to buy the operating kit and

everything. The preparation isn’t

perfect, but we’re here. I have a three-

year plan and so I have to learn as

much as possible at every race and go

from there.”

Social media is clearly important to

both drivers, with Paulsen sharing the

highs and lows of his season with a

series of vlogs. The determination

shown by the pair to compete at the

highest level of the TCR pyramid

surely confirms the accessibility of the

series while the hashtag #TCRDNA is

one that will be worth watching for as

the season goes on.

wanted to come to this, my home

event, to be a part of it.”

It was a similar story at the far end of

the giant tent that served as the TCR

paddock. Stian Paulsen is competing

in all of the European rounds in a bid

to qualify for the one-off TCR Trophy

Europe event at the Adria

International Raceway in October, but

a badly damaged car after the Spa

event meant that goal was in jeopardy.

A dejected Paulsen posted a video to

his Facebook page after Race 2 in Spa;