[Alessio]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Last weekend I watched the races at Mettet, well sort of it are only 5 minute highlights. Poor coverage is one of the problems. Biggest problem is money. I am sure there are drivers with interest but not enough money and others with budget go racing in GT's. Outside French speaking Belgium there's not much interest.

Although it's my national TCR series I prefer watching the Russian or Asian TCR series...

I am Dutch based and agree, also have a preference of TCR Asia, with no proper full-time drivers and myriad of co-drivers rotating in and out and with no coverage even on Dutch TV, it's very difficult to follow unless you attend the meetings I guess.

TCR Asia I am a little worried about for next year. Their social media coverage has slowed down a lot in the recent race meetings and they haven't uploaded anything from the first 2 days of this race weekend. Perhaps TCR China is more attractive for the China/Hong-Kong/Macau based drivers which pretty much make up most of the grid.. :/

Here is a translation of the Marc Van Dalen Benelux interview:

“Indeed, we will go no further than the end of this season with TCR Benelux”, explained Van Dalen in an interview with Speedactiontv.be, “In the course of 2 years, we have tried everything to allow the championship to gain importance.”

“We have lost a lot of money on this adventure, and as the CEO, it comes to me to take the decision to stop. It’s sad, but it’s like that. The federation reclaim responsibility of the championship, in order to allow teams which have invested into TCR cars to make their equipment profitable, but as far as we are concerned, it’s done. If the RACB wish that we give a helping hand, we will gladly…and by being paid. And therefore independently.”

“The cars are beautiful, they are well prepared, the show is of good quality. But times have changed. At the time of Procar, a driver who finished 5th was content and proud to be a part of it. Today, if a competitor is not on the podium, if he returns home without any cut of it, he goes and cries to his mum! What did not play in favour for TCR Benelux is that Belgium and the Netherlands consist of many good drivers, but few excellent pilots. Seeing the level of competition here, they prefer to take part in endurance races where their lack of speed is less blatant. They therefore dare not to come. We also take responsibility that it’s too expensive. But modern motorsport is expensive. And that, we cannot help. With Kronos Events, we wanted to be precursors in launching the championship, in particular by introducing the ‘Make the Grid’ system on social networks. At the request of some, we turned back. At the request of some, we preferred a formula with two drivers per car. At a meeting in Mettet just a year ago, we were assured to have between 15 and 20 cars at the start of Season 2. Everyone was optimistic…and everything collapsed. Why? I do not know..Some people preferred to ride in the Peugeot Racing Cup to win, which they did not do”.

“One of the reasons of the poor general health of our competitions is the excessive number of series that exist. There is too much choice! Result: everything goes downhill, and grids of 10 cars multiply. The proof [seen] with TCR Benelux. And then, not so long ago, the importers who invested in motorsport helped not only the teams, but also the organisers. At the time, I was in charge of Pegueot’s sport program, and I know how much we gave to the agency Palmares so that Procar could be competitive. But all this is ancient history. An importer who is involved today is helping a team, but not at all the organiser. However, the price of renting the circuits does not stop rising, and whether we come with one or one thousand cars, the price is the same. And to find sponsors is always more complicated. The consequence: for us, it’s finished!”