Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing enjoyed a memorable homecoming with two dominant victories as the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour visited the Inje Speedium in South Korea for the first time.
After Josh Buchan triumphed in Race 1 from pole position for the Australian HMO Customer Racing team, Mikel Azcona claimed the Race 2 honours with a commanding drive, also from pole, to hand BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse a fifth victory of 2025 and take his first win of the year.
Giving the newly homologated Hyundai Elantra N EV TCR its competition debut, Azcona’s long-awaited first-place finish followed on from earlier victories for BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse in Spain and Italy, plus a double triumph in Australia, and came despite the Spaniard carrying 30 kilograms of Compensation Weight.
Azcona, who finished 10th in Race 1 to secure the reverse-grid Race 2 pole, completed a strong weekend in South Korea by taking the Race 3 chequered flag in fourth position from sixth on the grid after he made a rapid start before resisting late pressure from two rivals.
Having arrived in South Korea tenth in the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour standings, Spaniard Azcona will head to the penultimate weekend of the season in China from October 31-November 2 in ninth position.
Norbert Michelisz scored more valuable points, with eighth in Race 2 from 11th on the grid the highlight for the Hungarian, who placed 11th in Race 1 and ninth in Race 3. He remains fifth in the title standings.
Seventeenth in Race 1, Néstor Girolami charged through the pack in Race 2 to complete the top 10 behind Buchan – who started from the pitlane after a clutch issue developed – before going on to finish 15th in the third race of the weekend following late contact. Buchan finished sixth.
While Race 1 took place on a damp but drying 3.908-kilometre Inje Speedium following a wet qualifying session, Race 2 was held in sunny and dry conditions.
Azcona made full use of his reverse-grid pole position to lead into the first corner and then build an advantage of more than five seconds prior to a safety car intervention.
Once racing resumed with 10 minutes left on the clock, Azcona was able to pull clear once again and win by 4.168s, his first since he won Race 1 in China exactly a year earlier.
Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing Manager Benoit Nogier said: “To win any Kumho FIA TCR World Tour race is special given the strong competition, but to win at home in South Korea is extra special and congratulations go to Mikel Azcona and BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse for their success. It was the debut for the newly homologated Elantra N EV TCR featuring an updated turbo, so a very satisfactory result. Congratulations also go to Josh Buchan and HMO Customer Racing for their victory in Race 1. As well as being a great advert for the Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing programme, what this private team from Australia achieved was a great example of how experience and knowledge is being passed down to customers around the world to help them become even more competitive. Of course, we would have wanted for all the BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse cars to have been at the front, but we found it difficult to adapt a set-up that worked well at other circuits, including at the last event in Australia, to the Inje Speedium and we struggled for grip at times as a result, but we will come back stronger.”
