On Wednesday, organisers confirmed the TCR Australia Series would not be held in 2026 due to a lack of entries.
The opening round at The Bend was scheduled for March 20-22, but only two drivers had been announced.
With interest at an all-time low and several cars on the market, the category’s future is in serious doubt.
It’s a brutal fall from grace for the series that began with a hiss and a roar in 2019, featuring a grid that included high-profile Supercars drivers.
Among them were Supercars champion Russell Ingall and Bathurst 1000 winner Jason Bright.
Other name drivers included Andre Heimgartner, Tony D’Alberto, and James Moffat up against emerging talents like Will Brown, Jordan Cox, and Aaron Cameron.
Buchan joined the series in 2021 – the same year that Chaz Mostert beat Cameron and Cox to the title.
Fresh out of the local Formula 3 series, Buchan was given an opportunity to race a Hyundai through Barry Morcom’s HMO Customer Racing.
Buchan won the TCR titles in 2023 and 2024 and credits it for vaulting him into international opportunities with Hyundai and into GT3 racing.
Speaking with Speedcafe, Buchan identified Australia’s tendency to gravitate towards V8 racing, the period when the series was behind the Stan Sport paywall, and exclusively running the 2026 series out of South Australia as contributing factors to the TCR’s demise.
“I just think it’s a great shame that a category where it’s a single driver, professional level category does not exist,” said Buchan.
“Other than Supercars – which is so unattainable for so many people, and even when you’re there you’ve got to be in one or two teams to do a good job – TCR gave an opportunity for people to drive on their own and stand out.
“BOP (Balance of Performance)made it so that everyone has an opportunity to win a race, to create a story, and to create a little bit of hype around themselves, which a lot of people did.
“Obviously you’ve got Trans Am and GR Cup and whatnot, but there was always something special about jumping into a world touring car.”
When the TCR Australia Series made its debut in 2019 as part of the Australian Racing Group’s suite of categories, it was billed as the headliner ahead of Trans Am and S5000.
After a breakout first season, the series suffered the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and did not go ahead in 2020 but returned with a truncated 2021 calendar.
The series arguably peaked across 2021 and 2022, though many believe taking the series off free-to-air network Seven for a deal with subscription streaming service Stan Sport in partnership with Nine was its death knell.
Suggestions that TCR could be a serious rival to Supercars were wide of the mark, Buchan said – and ultimately left the series facing the same fate as the Super Touring era of the 1990s.
“I remember when it came out, everyone wanted to be in it,” said Buchan of TCR.
“The whole argument of: it’s going to take over, it’s going to do this, it’s better than this — that was unhealthy for it and it’s unhealthy now for every category because they shouldn’t be fighting against one another.
“They hold their place. Supercars and TCR are completely different animals, and they have completely different endgames. That whole argument is part of the reason that people pick sides and want one to work and the other not to.
“There should be a world in which they both coexist because TCR is a platform to go overseas and to be hooked up with a manufacturer, and that’s just something that you really can’t do in anything else other than GT-land.
“It was never going to take over Supercars.”
Full-time entries began to slide after 2022 and the financial support that the former Australian Racing Group (ARG) management had pumped into the category’s early years to bankroll some cars had dried up.
The Rogers family eventually took sole ownership of ARG but began offloading its suite of categories.
TCR was among the last to go by the end of 2024, which left its new custodians scrambling to organise a 2025 calendar.
TCR could have featured on the Supercars undercard twice, but ultimately axed those plans due to travel costs.
In the end, just one round was held locally at The Bend as part of the TCR World Tour while Macau bizarrely counted toward the series. Buchan and teammate Ryan MacMillan were the only Australians to race at Macau.
What comes next is anyone’s guess. Charlotte White, who had been charged with managing the category, said The Bend would work with the global promoter and Motorsport Australia to find a place for the cars to race.
Nevertheless, Buchan said he will be forever grateful for the series and the opportunities it provided him.
“It was a smash and bash touring car category with good drivers who, for whatever reason, couldn’t gather the funds to go Supercars racing,” said Buchan.
“We’ve had a heap of Supercars guys through it, and it gave opportunities for guys like me to compete against guys like them and give myself credibility.
“That something that’s really hard to get until you somehow spend enough money to get to the top, whatever the top looks like.
“If it’s not gonna come back, 100 percent the category is going to be missed.
“It was a fantastic time in car racing and I was lucky with a manufacturer, but it gave me a direct line to being potentially a factory driver through my exploits last year.
“I can forever say I’ve won at Macau.
“I have nothing bad to say about TCR as a category and what it’s done for me and everyone who’s supported me along the way in that journey too.
“It gave me an opportunity to be a professional. I grabbed it with both hands and I’m still driving a season after my TCR stint has finished, for now.”
Buchan will join Ferrari team Zagame Autosport in GT World Challenge Powered by AWS alongside Cameron Campbell.
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