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Mike Sinclair28 Jun 2018
NEWS

Four-cylinder touring cars for Supercars series

Motorsport heavyweights want to plug new TCR cars into Supercars program

Australia could have a four-cylinder touring car category and factory-built front-wheel drive racers running at key Supercars rounds in 2019.

That’s the news from the Australian Racing Group (ARG), a new body headed by former Volvo Australia boss and V8 Supercars exec, Matt Braid.

ARG is bankrolled by a number of motorsport heavyweights and existing Supercars sponsors. It now looks set that the new entity will be awarded the rights by Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) to promote TCR racing Down Under

TCR is a global category, touted by some as a logical replacement for Supercars. The series features factory-built four-cylinder turbo front-drive hatchbacks and sedans.

Brands such as Audi, Volkswagen, Honda and Hyundai are all already involved in the series globally. Australia is the latest country to launch a championship, with TCR series already up and running in a number of European markets, Asia and the USA.

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ARG will also administer the proposed Super5000 V8 open-wheel formula and, says Braid, seek to add more categories to its offering to become a “supplier of choice” for support categories to Supercars, as well as CAMS’ second-tier Shannons Nationals meetings.

But Braid is adamant neither the new TCR series, nor ARG, are gunning for Supercars Down Under.

“The purpose of the Australian Racing Group is not to take on Supercars… I want to make it very clear,” Braid told carsales.com.au.

“This isn’t setting up a rival to Supercars… It’s really, for want of a better term, bundling all [support] categories together in one entity, improving them and improving the product as best we can for the competitors, the promoters and the fans, to then support various events,”

Braid wants ARG to be a “supplier of choice” for support categories for events including Supercars’ own. And he believes that in its debut season the Australian TCR series could race on the same program as Supercars.

"I can confirm that the Australian Racing Group is in final negotiations with CAMS on the rights to a TCR series in Australia," said Braid.

"While we are aligned on the key aspects of an agreement and talks continue to progress well, the process is not complete until it has been formally approved by both CAMS and ARG,” he stated.

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Braid says it’s too early to talk specifics around ARG’s vision for the TCR calendar, but he’s playing the potential.

“It’s very early days as far as the [TCR] calendar is concerned. We are working with, and talking to, various promoters about how we [might] structure the calendar for 2019.

“Ideally, somewhere between six and eight rounds and across, ideally, a mixture of Supercars and Shannons [Nationals] events,” Braid told carsales.com.au.

CAMS CEO Eugene Arocca has likened the front-drive 2.0-litre formula to T20 cricket.

“They’re short, sharp [races], depending on the size of the track. Some are five laps, some are 10 laps. It’s like the T20 of motorsport -- short, sharp, sexy.”

The CAMS boss added: “We are now in final discussions with ARG and will continue to work with Matt and the ARG team to finalise the agreement. We are excited for TCR to be coming to Australia -- it’s a category which has proven to be very popular overseas.”

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Braid and Arocca say they are confident the series will attract a workable grid for season 2019. A distributor for the Volkswagen Audi Group TCR models has already been appointed and Hyundai Motorsport is expected to confirm a local connection soon.

Honda, Ford, PSA, Kia, Opel and other brands all have models homologated for TCR.

“Because we haven’t gone public, we haven’t had a lot of [formal] conversations [with entrants]… At this stage, we think there’s a good solid six to eight people ready to go… Ideally, we’d like to start grid sizes in the teens,” Braid explained.

“The other beauty about TCR is given the cars are the same worldwide, there’s 600 of them around the world. And again within a couple of days' shipping time, there’s plenty of them around in Asia [with] which we could fill a grid… Invite them and again make it more of a multi-national representation of TCR in the races,” Braid explained.

Braid said only preliminary discussions had been had with manufacturers regarding involvement in the local series. Under TCR rules ‘factory’ teams are not permitted although the teams racing can be supported by brands.

“We’ve spoken to a couple, CAMS has spoken to a couple; both from a point of view of their race shops, the global race guys, the motorsport guys and local importers,” Braid told carsales.com.au.

The feedback he says is “tell us more”.

“The beauty of TCR, not only for Australia but elsewhere, is the cars are off the shelf. The cars are recognisable in every market and that’s the attraction from a manufacturer perspective.

“It’s not a case of the [budget for] development costs or the investment… The cars have a capped price, so no matter where you are in the world, you know what that car’s going to cost you to buy and again the maintenance and running costs are relatively contained as well,” Braid stated.

Despite the veiled reference to the standalone cost of Supercars, Braid is adamant the new series can co-exist with Australia’s premier category.

“I think other categories have tried to take on or talk up how they’re going to perform against Supercars. From the outset we know our place, from the point of view that the premier touring car category in Australia is Supercars.

"But TCR represents a good alternate touring car category which is distinctly different in its product. There doesn’t need to be head to head,” Braid opined.

Indeed, the new ARG boss believes some Supercars teams may even embrace TCR and run cars.

“We haven’t had a lot of discussions in the area but it’s logical the Supercar teams are morphing into proper racing businesses and expanding.

We think TCR is an opportunity for them to… have an adjacency to the current operations because it’s very straightforward.

“They’ve got the infrastructure, they’ve got the people,” he stated.

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