MOTORSPORT: TCR emerging as new powerhouse

Motorsport in Australia could be starting a slide away from Supercars as the Australian Racing Group, the power behind the fledgling TCR category, scoops up the rights for the booming Touring Car Masters competition.

The move could lead to the creation of a super series with the carsales TCR Australia Series, S5000 open-wheelers and Touring Car Masters on the same program in 2020, and the potential for further expansion.

With the Australian GT Championship in trouble after a desultory showing a fortnight ago at The Bend in South Australia, where less than a dozen front-line cars were raced, ARG could also be poised to take control of a sports car category that has been under-performing despite the presence of more than 30 cars in the country.

Nobody at ARG is prepared to confirm speculation about the group’s long-term plan, even though it has consistently pushed its intention to draw a new group of fans through what is now the Shannons Nationals.

It says it wants to create a viable second-tier program that will work for fans, tracks and competitors and not go head-to-head with Supercars.

But ARG is also waiting to hear if its plan for a TCR double-header, with a round of the World TCR Championship and a long-distance two-driver race, will be enough to win the rights to the fifth Bathurst meeting at Mount Panorama in two-way pitch against Supercars.

For now, ARG is concentrating on its tie-up with the Touring Car Masters, which follows the recent announcement that it has won the rights to TCR New Zealand.

“TCM is such an iconic and popular race category in Australia – with fans, event promotors and broadcasters, and compliments the existing categories in ARG’s portfolio,” says ARG director, Matt Braid.

The new deal will see the series, which races this weekend on the Supercars program at Queensland Raceway, unchanged for the rest of the year under the existing management of Tony Hunter and backing from Paynter Dixon.

“We are extremely pleased to have concluded an agreement … to assume the strategic and commercial management. We look forward to working with Tony Hunter and the TCM entrants to continue to build on the category’s strengths while pursuing additional opportunities for TCM that being part of Australian Racing Group will provide,” said Braid.

The TCM series began in 2007 and evolved rapidly from historic-style cars into some of the fastest touring cars in the country, with V8-powered Ford Mustangs and Holden Toranas currently at the front of the field driven by the likes of veteran John Bowe and reigning champion Steven Johnson, who is working on a switch to a Falcon inspired by his father Dick’s ‘Tru-Blu’ XD.

For over a decade, TCM has held the majority of its events alongside the Supercars championship, while also headlining its own races at the Muscle Car Masters, where the category will be competing again at Sydney Motorsport Park on the first weekend in September.