In 2002 SEAT Sport set up the
SEAT León Supercopa in Spain, a one-make series featuring the
SEAT León. This format has since expanded across Europe, with the formation of the
SEAT León Eurocup in 2008. In 2003, SEAT began entering the
SEAT Toledo Cupra in the
European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) with drivers
Jordi Gené and
Frank Diefenbacher. Former
British Touring Car Championship winner
Rickard Rydell joined them in 2004, taking their first victory. driving for SEAT Sport in Macau in the
2008 WTCC season.
WTCC In
2005, the ETCC became the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC).
Peter Terting replaced fellow German Diefenbacher.
Jason Plato also joined the team for four rounds, and
Marc Carol for one round. Later in 2005, the León model made its debut. In
2006,
Gabriele Tarquini,
Yvan Muller and
James Thompson joined the team.
André Couto,
Oscar Nogués and
Florian Gruber also raced in one-off rounds. In
2007, Rydell, Thompson and Terting left the team and were replaced by
Michel Jourdain Jr. and
Tiago Monteiro. Terting and Rydell later made one-off appearances for the team, as did Nogués. Towards the end of the season SEAT debuted the
TDi diesel version of the León. In
2008, Jourdain left the team, as the team scaled down from a six-car to a five-car team. Yvan Muller won SEAT's first driver's championship in the WTCC and SEAT also won the manufacturers title. In
2009, SEAT Sport continued with the same five drivers, with French team
Oreca assisting with the operation. Gabriele Tarquini won SEAT's second in-a-row driver's championship in the WTCC and SEAT won the manufacturers title for a second consecutive year. After winning two consecutive driver's and manufacturers titles, SEAT withdrew from the WTCC at the end of the 2009 season as a manufacturer-backed team. However, in January 2010, it was announced that they would provide backing to the newly formed
SR-Sport team run by SUNRED Engineering, while also confirming Gabriele Tarquini,
Jordi Gene, Tiago Monteiro and
Tom Coronel as
2010 drivers, as Yvan Muller departed for the works
Chevrolet team. For
2012, SEAT announced that they will return to the WTCC Season as a Customer Supply team, SEAT Sport supplied engines in 2012 to the Lukoil Racing Team who run two 1.6T cars driven by veteran SEAT Driver Gabriele Tarquini and Aleksei Dudukalo. They also supplied 1.6T Engines to the Tuenti Racing Team who ran cars for Pepe Oriola and Fernando Monje, Tuenti Racing Team driver Tiago Monteiro ran a SEAT Sport TDI engine for the first weekend but then switched to a 1.6T engine supplied by SUNRED. Special Tuning Racing have run both a 1.6T engine and 2.0 TDI engine both supplied by SEAT Sport, Daryll O'Young has only used the 1.6T engine but Tom Boardman used the 2.0TDI from the start of the season till round 7. SUNRED engineering ran a SEAT Sport 2.0TDI engine at the start of the season in Andrea Barlesi's car but then switched to the SUNRED 1.6T engine from rounds 2-3. driving for SEAT Sport UK at
Oulton Park in the
2008 BTCC season.
BTCC Between
2004 and
2008, SEAT Sport competed in the
British Touring Car Championship, under the SEAT Sport UK banner.
Jason Plato drove for the team for five years, while
Rob Huff,
James Pickford,
Luke Hines,
Darren Turner, James Thompson and
WTCC regular Tom Coronel (as a one-off) also competed. Initially the cars were run by RML Group until they began concentrating on the Chevrolet WTCC project. Plato finished as championship runner-up in 2006 and 2007. In 2008 the TDi version was used, but reliability was a problem. Two teams continued to campaign petrol SEATs in the championship during
2009 with
Adam Jones and series returnee
Dan Eaves competitive for the
Cartridge World Clyde Valley team, while
Gordon Shedden drove for Clyde Valley for a couple of events before it withdrew, but he returned to drive a Leon for the
Club Seat outfit. In
2010, Tom Boardman drove a petrol SEAT Leon Under the team name Special Tuning UK with sponsorship from Club SEAT.
Phil Glew joined Tom in a SEAT for one weekend at Silverstone racing under the team name of YourRacingCar.com but the car was run by Special Tuning UK. In
2011, Boardman and
Dave Newsham drove petrol SEATs under the team name Special Tuning Racing. Special Tuning Racing where not associated with SEAT Sport or SEAT Sport UK. Boardman came first in the third race at Knockhill.
ETCR Cupra joined
Pure ETCR, a new touring car series for electric cars, in the
inaugural season in 2021 alongside
Hyundai and
Romeo Ferraris. Cupra partnered with
Zengő Motorsport and fielded
Mattias Ekström,
Jordi Gené,
Mikel Azcona and
Dániel Nagy as the drivers line-up. Cupra and Ekström finished the season as the manufacturers' and drivers' champions respectively. Cupra partnered with
EKS RX, a team founded by Ekström, as Cupra EKS. The team retained Ekström and Gené and signed
Tom Blomqvist and
Adrien Tambay for the season. Cupra and Tambay finished the season as the manufacturers' and drivers' champions respectively. In March 2023, Discovery Sports Events, the promoter of the series, announced that they will not be continuing for the 2023 season citing unresolvable differences among the various stakeholders concerning the sporting and regulatory format. == Extreme E ==