Plans underway for Australian TCR series

With a distribution and promotion network currently being set up by Adam Hammond, the plan is for a number of TCR-spec cars to be entered in the Invitational class at next year’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

From there, Hammond and his team are hoping to establish a six-round Australian TCR Series, bringing the spec 330 horsepower Touring Cars down under for the first time.

“Pretty much everywhere in the world is now covered [by TCR],” Hammond told Motorsport.com. “They’ve got a regional or a national championship everywhere, and Australia and New Zealand were the last spot [not to have a series].

“I spoke to all the manufacturers, and all of them were happy to supply cars, parts, most have been far more approachable than other categories I’ve worked with. They have even said ‘look, if you’ve got mechanics from Australia that want to come over and do some training, they can come and hang out for the last week of the build, drivers can come and check the car if they want’, and so on. They’ve been very cooperative.

“In order to dip the toe in the water, the aim is to get some of the cars out in time for Bathurst. We’ve spoken to both Supercars Australia and SRO – SRO already has TCR as a standalone category at the Sepang 12 Hour, so that’s no issue. They’ve come back and confirmed they can run in Invitational at Bathurst. And if we can get enough, we’ll look at having a TCR category at Bathurst in 2018.

“Then ideally we’ll kick off a series, with six rounds, in 2017.”

According to Hammond, the ideal plan would be a calendar split between the Shannons Nationals, and selected Supercars events. There would even be scope, he says, to add the Australian Grand Prix to the calendar and tie it in with either the International or Asian series, similar to what happens in Bahrain, Singapore, and Malaysia.

“The obvious possibility is to have part of the International, or at least the TCR Asia series which is now huge, kicking off in Melbourne [at the Grand Prix],” Hammond added.

“As to how far along they are with their programme and whether they could fit a 30-minute race in, let alone two, is yet to be seen. But it’s something we’ll be having a red hot go at.”

The TCR cars confirm to the FIA TCN2 specification, with body shapes for a number of different makes, including Volkswagen, Audi, Opel (which in Australia could be branded as Holden), Honda, Kia, Subaru, and more.

There are currently regional championships in Asia, Benelux, China, Italy, Portugal, the US, Thailand, and Germany. In 2017, the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship will switch to TCR regs as well.

According to Hammond, pricing will be around the €130,000 mark – which means the focus will be on young drivers looking for a springboard overseas.

“The real positivity is coming from younger guys who are looking to break into something serious,” he said.

“The bonus is if they do any good down here, they can go to Asia, they can go to Europe, they can go to the Middle East – and they’re straight into identical hardware That’s difficult to find, unless you have GT3 money. That’s a huge bonus.”

There is also a plan to target local branches of manufacturers with incentive programmes for engineers and mechanics.

“With most of the manufacturers I’ve spoken to in Australia, what we’re trying to do is try and get a programme that is aimed at staff retention and staff satisfaction among all the mechanics and engineers,” said Hammond.

“So if you’re a dealer with a couple of Holden dealerships, you can send your mechanics to us and we’ll match them up with a team. The guys can get a heaps of experience working on race cars all weekend. So manufacturers are, at minimum, keen to get involved at that level.”