William Taylforth has made a mid-season switch to race-winning Ginetta Junior Championship team Total Control Racing it is confirmed today, Thursday, 17th July, expanding the squad’s entry to three cars for the first time in its maiden campaign in the category.

The 16-year-old, who hails from Great Ecclestone near Preston, arrives at TCR with three top six finishes to his credit so far this year and goes into the next event of the season – rounds 11 and 12 at Snetterton 300 Circuit in Norfolk on 2nd/3rd August – just seven points shy of the series top 10.

Prior to his graduation into the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship support series late in the 2013 season, the Lancastrian established a strong pedigree in karting where he was a regular winner and podium finisher in Comer Cadets.

Making the step into Ginetta Junior at just 15-years-of-age last September, Taylforth achieved his first top 10 finish on only his second weekend in cars, at Silverstone National Circuit, and then went on to compete in the short Winter Series.

His move to renowned one-make specialist TCR, which has enjoyed huge success in a variety of championships over the years including title victories in the Michelin Ginetta GT4 SuperCup and Renault UK Clio Cup, sees Taylforth team-up with multiple podium finisher Jamie Caroline and top 10 regular Matt Chapman.

“Our aim is to move William up the grid as soon as we can, he’s got his first test with us next week so we’re looking forward to working with him for the first time”, said TCR team principal Lee Brookes, “I feel he should be higher up the order than he has been so far this year, we’ll find out in the test the areas he needs to improve and then hopefully help move him further towards the front.

“It’s fantastic for TCR to be a three-car team in Juniors, it’s only our first year in the championship but we’ve had some cracking results with Jamie [Caroline] and Matt [Chapman] and we’re confident William can add to that. All three lads should work well together – we can’t wait for Snetterton,”

Determined to make significant progress throughout the second half of his first full season in cars, if things go according to plan the desire for Taylforth is to make the move into front-wheel drive saloon-car racing in Renault Clios in 2015.

“The first half of the year hasn’t worked for us, so we’re hoping to improve with this move to TCR and get to where we think we ought to be”, said Taylforth’s father Mark, “Jamie Caroline has done exceptionally well as a rookie this year, TCR is obviously one of the best teams out there.

“Lee Brookes’ experience as a driver in touring cars and then doing well in things like the [Renault UK] Clio Cup is another factor for us. If it looks like William can get somewhere by the end of the year, we’ll probably look at doing the Clio Cup Series with TCR and then the TOCA Clios after that.”