MOTORSPORT: New 2.0-litre 'tourers' a year away

The formal green-light has been given for new 2.0-litre touring car racing in Australia, with the intention to start late next year.

The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) this week confirmed it has granted the commercial and promotional rights to what will be known as the Touring Car Racing (TCR) Series to the Australian Racing Group (ARG).

ARG is led by Matt Braid, a former managing director of Volvo Cars Australia, who later worked with the Supercars Championship.

It’s for privateer teams – factory-owned entries will be prohibited – but car manufacturers will be encouraged to support their cars.

The category, which is being pitched as a support act for Supercars events or to race at Shannons Nationals rounds, is open to front-wheel drive C-segment (small) hatchbacks or sedans powered by production-based turbocharged petrol or diesel engines of up to 2.0 litres and 420Nm of torque or 310 horsepower.

The TCR regulations were formulated by Italian Marcello Lotti, who previously ran the now-defunct World Touring Car Championship, and are portrayed as “a cost-effective touring car racing alternative, providing an exciting race format and opportunity for upcoming drivers and racing teams”.

There are already four internationally-sanctioned TCR Series around the world and 12 national or regional series using the TCR regulations.

This week’s announcement proclaimed that “the category has produced some of the most breath-taking, close and exciting motor racing, thanks to its level playing field amongst a wide-range of car manufacturers”.

Manufacturers with cars homologated to TCR Series rules include Alfa-Romeo, Audi, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Opel, Peugeot, Renault, Skoda, Subaru and Volkswagen.

Braid says ARG has been talking to race teams and car manufacturers about the new category, with the cars expected to cost about $200,000.

Melbourne Performance Centre is one entity interested in competing and already has an Audi RS3 TCR at its workshop.

“TCR has proven itself to be an extremely popular, exciting and successful category in many countries around the world, and we look forward to working with competitors, manufacturers and event promoters to successfully launch the TCR series in Australia,” Braid said.

CAMS chief executive Eugene Arocca said the formalisation of the arrangement with ARG – after CAMS signed a five-year agreement in January to have a TCR series in Australia – was “a very exciting development”.

“Already the interest in TCR has been very promising, from both a competitor and manufacturer standpoint,” Arocca said.

Lotti said it was “a landmark moment for TCR to land on a fourth continent after Europe, Asia and the Americas” and that the involvement and support of CAMS was “a guarantee of a bright future for TCR Australia”.

He said Australian fans, who he described as “enthusiastic and competent” would “soon learn to love TCR, just as has happened with their fellow fans across the rest of the world”.

CAMS and ARG have been at pains to project the new category as no potential threat to the dominance of Supercars on the Australian motorsport landscape.

In the late 1990s the scene was split when a more costly 2.0-litre category was introduced, and even had its own Bathurst 1000, but it was short-lived as fans showed their preference at that time for V8 Holdens and Fords.

“TCR is intended as a strong support category to Supercars at a number of major national events,” this week’s announcement said.

“While both the TCR Series and Supercars are ‘touring car’ categories, the vehicle specs and racing styles are completely different.

“We see that TCR potentially has appeal to a younger, differentiated demographic, which complements and would fit well with Supercars from a support perspective.”

ARG also has the commercial and management rights to develop Super 5000, the proposed open-wheeler category that its proponents hope can recapture the excitement of Formula 5000 half a century ago and still popular at historic events.

The technical regulations for Super 5000 are still being finalised.

For more in formation, head to the TCR Australia website or the TCR Series website.