Lewis Kent has confirmed that he will compete in the TCR UK championship for a second season, driving the Essex and Kent Motorsport Hyundai i30 N TCR in which he finished fifth in the 2018 Drivers’ championship.

The 19-year old from Witham in Essex twice finished on the podium in 2018, recording a third place at Brands Hatch and only just missing out on second place at Oulton Park when he ran wide at the penultimate corner of the final lap.

Following a successful test at Portimao in Portugal in December, the car has been rebuilt over the winter months ahead of a UK testing programme that will begin at Silverstone this coming Sunday (February 17th) before moving to Snetterton, the venue for the first round of the 2019 TCR UK championship over the weekend of April 20th/21st.

Lewis commented: “I’m really excited about this season as we now have the data and also a great insight as to what TCR UK is all about. Hopefully with that data, plus support from Hyundai Motorsport, 2019 is looking really positive. We said from the start that 2018 would be a learning year, so to get the two podiums was amazing. We’re now seriously aiming for the championship in 2019 but the beauty of TCR is that we’re also looking at maybe entering another TCR series, depending on budget.

“I really think that TCR is the future – I hope TCR UK goes a long way and we’re really pleased to have been a part of it from the very start. We’ve made the decision to announce our 2019 entry relatively early to hopefully start a snowball effect and encourage more drivers and teams to sign up.”