THREE WEEKS out from their opening round in Sydney, the TCR Australia grid is starting to come together – and already it looks pretty tasty.
Seven teams have committed to running cars in the category, five of them well-established entities, one new / returning / reborn outfit headed up by a former Bathurst champion and one a new squad but filled with plenty of experience.
The biggest news, perhaps since the announcement of the category, came this morning when Kelly Racing confirmed Molly Taylor would make her circuit racing debut behind the wheel of one of the team’s Subaru TCR cars.
A former Australian Rally Champion, Taylor had been heavily mooted to join the series however had to this point remained focussed on her role as a factory driver for Subaru in the ARC.
While she will miss the final two rounds due to clashes with her rally campaign, Taylor’s signing is a big one.
She has a serious online and media profile, is a regular on FOX Sports Australia and has a growing fanbase. Outside of, perhaps, Simona de Silvestro she’s almost certainly the highest profile female in Australian Motorsport today.
It’s a big get for TCR and Kelly Racing.
Kelly Racing’s expansion into TCR was big news in it’s own right and while they are yet to confirm drivers for their remaining Subaru or either of their Astra entries, watching the progress of this team will be fascinating. While they may have struggled for results in Supercars with the sometimes recalcitrant Nissan Altima, given their resource and experience TCR may be a different story.
Garry Rogers Motorsport has filled three of their four available seats and at least on paper look like one of the strongest outfits assembled so far.
Their pair of Renault Megane’s will be steered by Super 2 series champion Chris Pither and James Moffat, who needs no introduction, while one of their Alfa Romeo entries will have young-gun Jimmy Vernon behind the wheel. They have a second Alfa yet to be filled.
Wall Racing, who will dovetail their TCR campaign with their successful Porsche Carrera Cup squad, has locked in DJR Team Penske enduro ace Tony D’Alberto and GT ace John Martin for their pair of Honda Civic Type Rs.
It’s a strong team with plenty of experience and, along with the GRM trio, are probably on-paper favourites this early in the piece.
HMO Customer Racing are new to the sport but are ingrained with plenty of experience.
Their pair of Hyundai I30N TCR entries will be steered by Nathan Morcom, a former Australian GT winner, and Will Brown – who will race TCR alongside his Super2 Series campaign this year. Talented duo.
Team Tradie is headed by Jason Bright, who will make a return to full-time competition this year as he heads up a two-car squad of VW Golf TCRs. No stranger to team ownership – he owned and operated Britek Motorsport in the Supercars Championship – Bright’s addition to the grid was a genuine coup for TCR organisers. Who ends up in the second car will be a key storyline heading into the first round.
The ninth driver confirmed happened just this week; 20-year-old Dutch driver Rik Breukers confirmed in a one-round deal to drive the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS 3 TCR.
Though he’s never seen Sydney Motorsport Park before, Breukers’ addition to the grid adds some international flair and given his time in TCR Machinery in long-distance racing, should make him an early benchmark.
The young Dutchman’s deal was brokered by Ryan McLeod, who runs the well-regarded MARC Cars Australia squad in the Creventic Endurance Series and in local GT competition.
It will be interesting to see if the McLeod – Melbourne Performance Centre relationship will expand in the future.
MPC are the local distributor for the Audi TCR (and GT3) products and have a long list of drivers, owners, partners and resource on which to draw so how they progress their TCR outfit alongside their existing Audi GT3 commitments will be fascinating.
Of the other seats to be filled, GWR Australia has a pair of Hyundai’s waiting for drivers.
TCR organisers, the Australian Racing Group, say they expect somewhere close to 15 cars on the grid for round one, which will be a solid debut for a start-up championship.
Even if it is less than that, the depth already confirmed ensure that the racing is going to be feisty enough.
With commitments to air each race live on free-to-air TV all the pieces are in place for a solid return of ‘international’ Touring Car competition to Australia.
With the category also confirmed for an early 2020 start in New Zealand there will be plenty of eyes from across the Tasman watching as well.
The only real questions that now remain to be answered surround the series’ place on the local motorsport landscape.
While anti-Supercars punters, usually hiding behind their keyboards, trumpet TCR as the downfall of the V8’s, that is hardly likely.
If the power of Super Touring couldn’t topple a much less influential Supercars category in the 1990s, then there’s little chance of TCR doing the same to a series backed by a string of massive events, huge investment and a significant TV deal.
But then again, that’s not the stated intention of TCR in Australia. Instead, finding the niche’ in to which the series lands in a crowded, already underfunded local motorsport market will be one of the most fascinating talking points this year.
Arming themselves with a strong grid, a good media package and – hopefully – good racing should see them find that pretty quickly.
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