MOTORSPORT: Peugeot and Cupra join carsales TCR chase

Two new brands will inject extra European flavour into the carsales TCR Australia Series for the final round of the championship at Tailem Bend next month. And they’ll be back to contest the 2020 series.

The arrival of Cupra from Spain and French marque, Peugeot, will lift the number of brands in the rookie series to 10, with the potential for a 22-car grid at the season finale in South Australia on November 15-17.

TCR organiser, the Australian Racing Group (ARG) is now targeting a field of close to 30 cars for its showcase arrival at the Australian F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne in March 2020, tapping a number of Asian series and a new Kia team from the upcoming New Zealand TCR championship.

Cupra is the performance sub-brand of SEAT, a part of the Volkswagen Group. The first Cupra for Australia is one of two that will be run by Garage1, a company owned by John Evans, the father of successful Porsche Supercup racer, Jaxon Evans.

Tim Brook, who has been racing in the Toyota 86 series this year, will jump into the Cupra at The Bend after previously racing a Honda Civic Type R at Winton with Wall Racing.

“I don’t really have an expectation for any results. The Cupra is an unknown for everyone, but like almost every TCR car, they are all evenly matched,” says Brook.

“It was great to do Winton [with Honda]. I was a like a kid in a candy store the whole weekend. I really enjoyed it. It was over before I knew it, but it did show me that TCR is where I want to be in the future,” Brook stated.

The Cupra team has forged a connection with Melbourne Performance Centre, which fields race winning Audi RS3s in the carsales TCR Australia Series, and Evans is hopeful of a solid start in South Australia.

“Compared to the other teams who have been racing TCR for the past six months, we’ve got some catch up to do, but we are confident that the package that Cupra supplied, plus the support from MPC, is going to fast track our development,” says Evans.

The Peugeot 308 TCR for The Bend is a full factory effort, with French star Aurelien Comte handling the driving and a full crew of mechanics and technicians for the event.

The car is expected to stay in Australia for 2020 and is likely to be part of a two-car Peugeot push.

“We have watched the carsales TCR Australia Series with a lot of interest. The Australian series generates a lot of attention in Europe. It is really great to see lots of different car brands and is a very professional series,” Mayeul Tyl, director of Peugeot Citroen Racing Shop told carsales.

“We are very excited to bring our Peugeot 308 TCR to Australia,” he said.

The field for the carsales TCR Australia Series grand final is almost set, although there are still drivers to be locked-in for extra cars, as the Victorian team Milldun Motorsport takes over the running of the pair of Subaru WRX previous run by Kelly Racing and several other teams look to grow their car counts.