Calgary’s Nicolas Taylor is TCR Italy Drivers Champion for second year in a row

Nicolas Taylor continues to tear it up on the racetrack. He's been driving and setting records ever since he joined TCR Italy.

Calgary’s Nicolas Taylor continues to tear it up on the race track in Italy.

He’s been driving and setting records ever since he joined TCR Italy. For the second year in a row, Taylor is the TCR Italy Drivers Champion.

In an interview with CTV News, Taylor said he felt a lot more pressure this season to defend his title.

“It feels like I have everything to lose, right, whereas the year before, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Taylor said. “It was a bit of a mindset change and it was a little bit more difficult overall mentally and racing with the competitors of mine but in the end we came home with a fantastic result once again.”

How good has Taylor been in his two years in TCR Italy? Well, he’s racked up five race wins, which is a record.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” he said. “You know everybody around me is saying it’s pretty spectacular and it’s absolutely unbelievable to now have a TCR racing record, an official world record in the TCR world under my name.

“It doesn’t really feel real because some of my competitors who have been racing in TCR for 15 and 20 years have not achieved something like this.”

Taylor achieved the goal with only two years of Italian-style racing under his belt.

He’s won every championship there is to win in TCR Italy, so where does he go from here?

“So TCR Italy, there’s nothing left for me,” he said. “So I will shift my focus now to coaching in TCR Italy. I’ll look for drivers from carting and bring them into TCR and shape them into what I’ve achieved in the TCR Italy world.

“As for my racing plans,” he added. “It’s still quite unknown.”

Taylor can afford to be patient. With his resume, he’s in a position to be paid, whatever series that happens to be in.

“And I guess on the trajectory I’m going, you know, now carrying five drivers titles in the last two years, it’s setting me up to be on a good path for this so I think I just need to keep pushing and we’ll see what the next opportunity is.”