FOR DECADES and decades Australia and New Zealand have shared a similar racing culture yet have enjoyed very little cross-over.
Oh sure, we’ve had drivers. Jim Richards, Greg Murphy, Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin have made a habit of coming over here and stealing our biggest trophies. And so they should.
And yet, they’ve never been able to do it in cars from their own country.
As good as having Australian drivers take on Kiwi drivers in Supercars, open wheelers or otherwise, it would be better if Kiwi cars could come here and race the same specification cars on Aussie tarmac. And vice-versa. I’ve written about it before on this very website.
Well, the good news is that, finally, it looks like that could be a thing.
We decided (questionably) that we’d rather have F4 over TRS and that our 86 series would be a slightly different specification than yours. And, of course, our Touring Car worlds haven’t aligned since the halcyon days of the Group A era and the 1980s.
But in TCR we have a saviour for trans-Tasman competition on four wheels, potentially as intense, competitive and feisty as it is in cricket, rugby, netball and anything else.
News that a division of ARG, the company promoting the still brand-new TCR Australia series, would head up operations for the still-to-come New Zealand series has to be seen as a breath of fresh air.
Finally we’ve got one promoter on each side of the Tasman, promoting the same product and with the same goals and ambitions.
TCR New Zealand looks set to launch in early 2020 and should line-up with the existing and successful Speed Works program that runs over summer.
That will lead nicely into the second season of TCR Australia, which should start in March or April next year.
The fact that the Australian and New Zealand calendars run in different seasons is like a message from god.
For starters, there’s the long-term potential of a Tasman series.
The best from TCR Australia and New Zealand could get together for a series of four races, two on each side of the ditch, and go head to head in the spirit of, if not the same style of machinery, as the famous Tasman series’ of old.
The potential for that to become a cornerstone of TCR racing in the region, drawing from not only the two local markets but from regions further afield in Asia, is significant.
But even if that takes a few years to get happening, the cross pollination of the two series will be a win-win for many.
Teams will be able to amortise the cost of their vehicles by using them for twelve months of the year – running them in both series if they choose, to get maximum bang for their buck.
Compared to Australia, the Kiwi series is more condensed so, unless they chose to use their cars in the North or South Island Endurance series, NZ teams could quite feasibly send their cars over for the Aussie winter. And vice-versa.
Then there’s the drivers. TCR Australia has attracted a diverse bunch of drivers, split nicely between those just out of a Supercars seat to those looking for one – with a smattering of those doing it for kicks thrown in for good measure.
For young drivers with budget, being in a car as often as possible is key so it would become a no-brainer to add a, say, six-round TCR NZ campaign onto the seven or eight rounds likely for Australia in 2020. And again, it works both ways.
Mechanics can keep busy all year round. Sponsors or those invested in it can leverage an investment on both sides of the water. And so on.
But perhaps most importantly, the two series’ working together will be good for the sport.
The messages will be the same, the ideals the same and the marketing effort and promotion – based on what has been done already in the Australian series – will hopefully be just as on-point.
Which means the sport will grow, more people will watch and engage with it which can only be a good thing.
And if even a tiny element of the passion Australian fans get from beating New Zealand teams, and Kiwi fans get from beating Aussies, seeps into a trans-Tasman TCR campaign then it will be a very good thing indeed.
After years of being close but ultimately oh-so-far apart, the two closest of motorsport neighbours in the world are beating down the fence. And it has the potential to be great.
**
Oh, and there’s another thing.
The same people promoting TCR are behind the very exciting S5000 series, for V8-powered big-banger wings and slicks racers.
You now have permission to dream about what a re-born Tasman series in those cars could be like, too…
Comments