Australia’s motorsport governing board, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS), have signed an agreement with TCR founders WSC Ltd to introduce a national TCR series in 2019.
The announcement marks an important expansion for the TCR touring car model with Australia being one of the world’s largest markets for car manufacturers, and offers a cheaper national alternative to the highly developed and expensive machinery used in the Australia Supercars Championship.
Whilst unlikely to challenge the popular and prestigious Supercars series, a TCR Australia championship would provide less funded drivers a cheaper option to compete at a national level and could even provide leverage to reach the top echelon of the Australian touring car leader. Furthermore, the series will also offer fans a field of cars more closely based on their road-going counterparts relative to the silhouette Supercars Championship.
“This is an exciting development for Australian motor sport. TCR Australia will provide the opportunity for affordable, competitive action in cars that are direct derivatives of popular road going cars,” confirms Eugene Arocca, CEO of CAMS.
“We are looking forward to working with manufacturers and competitors to ensure the success of this category. The worldwide interest in TCR has been very encouraging and we anticipate that the competitive Australian car buying market will see a number of manufacturers support the category.”
“We are absolutely delighted. The deal with CAMS, which is the driving force behind the success of Australian motor sport, adds a fourth continent to those – Europe, Asia and the Americas – where TCR series have already been established,” adds Marcello Lotti, the WSC CEO.
“This is also a great challenge, because motor sport is hugely popular in Australia and the local fans are enthusiastic and competent. We are confident that they will soon learn to love TCR just as has happened with their fellow fans across the rest of the world.”
