Amid ongoing question marks over the future of the category in Australia, two distinct possibilities have arisen, which would come to fruition as soon as next year.
The first is a collaboration with TCR Asia to form an Asia-Pacific series.
General Manager Liam Curkpatrick said that ARG has approached TCR Asia to see if there is any interest.
“Whether it is them coming to do a couple of rounds here and/or TCR Australia going to rounds there, and also whether there is the ability for TCR Australia to compete at Macau,” Curkpatrick explained.
He added that TCR still has relevance as a worldwide category, while also adamant that nothing would change as far as the current Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Championship’s existence.
“Unfortunately, this year the TCR World Tour had to take a break as it had to do the China event, obviously they couldn’t do Bathurst,” he said.
“Talks continue with WSC (the promoter of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour) about a World Tour round coming back to Australia next year. We are very keen to keep those links. There is every chance of anther Would Tour round again next year.
“I don’t know how far it [the talks] has progressed, but we have had initial conversations with TCR Asia about what the possibilities could be.
“It is more supplementary to what we are going to be doing. Nothing is to replace what we have going on.
“To be fair, we came from a very different world before COVID, what the expectation was. It has been a bit of a journey and is probably time for a few changes to be made.”
While it was confirmed that TCR Australia would still have a domestic competition, where the rounds will take place hasn’t, given rumblings that ARG would pursue to a berth on some Supercars’ events in 2025.
It is not the first time that a link with Asia has occurred. In 2020, a 22-car field were set to race on the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix support programme at Albert Park for the TCR Asia Pacific Cup.
There was six international drivers and seven different car brands for the scheduled three races, however they didn’t take place after the entire event was cancelled on the Friday morning due to a McLaren team member testing positive to COVID.
The decision to cancel came only a few moments before the drivers lined up on the grid for Race 1, with Garth Tander in an Audi on pole position.
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