Andreas and Jessica Bäckman have signed a deal to race with Target Competition in the 2019 TCR Europe series, where the Swedish duo will get behind the wheel of two Hyundai i30 N TCR cars.

In 2018 the Bäckmans campaigned in both the TCR Scandinavia and TCR UK series’ with WestCoast Racing, running Volkswagen Golf GTi cars for much of the season, although Andreas also raced a Honda Civic TCR in TCR UK for one round at Croft.

Andreas finished third overall in the TCR UK series with one win, and 14th in the STCC, whilst Jessica was fourth overall in TCR UK and 18th in the STCC.

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The young Swedes will now move up to TCR Europe, having sampled the regional series at the end of 2018 when they took part in the season finale at Barcelona.

The Bäckmans will join Target Competition for 2019, who lifted the Teams’ title in TCR Europe in 2017, when it was a one-off event.

“I´m delighted to welcome the youngsters Andreas and Jessica in our team,” said Target Team Principal Andreas Gummerer. “Both have showed a strong performance in different TCR series.

“The key will be a good preparation before the first round and I am confident they will be on top from the very first race.”

Jessica, 21, is looking forward to learning a new car for the next season, as she enters her second season in touring car racing.

“When I started the 2018 season, I never thought that one year later I would be about to compete in one of the best teams, against Europe’s best racing drivers,” she said. “It will be so exciting to start a new season and develop even more as a driver.”

Andreas admits that he is excited by the prospect of moving to a bigger series in 2019, after taking on two national series’ in 2018.

“The results from recent years show that they are a team to count on for the upcoming season,” he said. “My efforts during the 2018 season exceeded my expectations for my first year in racing, so it will be very exciting to see what the next season has to offer.”