Having parted ways with the British Touring Car Championship, Stewart Lines and his Maximum Motorsport team will enter selected rounds of the inaugural TCR UK Series in 2018.

With 75 BTCC races under his belt, Lines will hope to use his tin-top experience to good effect as he undertakes this new challenge with the team’s Cupra TCR; a vehicle that is also eligible for the DSG Trophy (a sub-championship within TCR UK for DSG gearbox-equipped cars). Maximum Motorsport have owned their Cupra for quite some time now, and although they had been searching for another driver to take the wheel, it’s the team boss who will give the car its TCR UK début.

During the recent pre-season test at a rainy Silverstone, Lines posted the third fastest lap time behind the Honda-driving duo, Ollie Taylor and Sean Walkinshaw. A repeat performance at the same venue on Easter Sunday would certainly go down a treat, but it may prove difficult in what is set to be a closely fought championship.

Maximum Motorsport will also be running cars in the Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup, as is customary for the team these days, which will support the TCR UK Series at selected venues throughout the 2018 season.

In his official statement, Stewart Lines said: “We’ve had the car for some time now as I strongly believe that TCR is the future of Touring Cars. We plan to compete in a number of championships with it and we’re starting 2018 with a programme of TCR UK events. Depending on how things go at Silverstone, we could well enter more rounds and have a real go at winning the DSG Trophy.”

Following the previous announcements of Derek Palmer and Howard Fuller, Lines becomes the third ex-BTCC driver to commit to the 2018 TCR UK Series, with current BTCC star Aiden Moffat also highly tipped to enter as the grid begins to take shape.