TCR Australia 2023

[V8 Fireworks]

They have one day per race meeting on free-to-air this year. A wise decision.

In other news, some claim the Kumho tyres are better than Michelins, which according to some Michelin fans ought to be impossible!
https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/buchan-t...-out-for-2023/

[gomick]

Too many options, Kayo/Foxtel or SBS. I aint paying for Stan when i have NETFLIX which i rarely watch, too hard...

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks

They have one day per race meeting on free-to-air this year. A wise decision.

What they have is only one race out of three on Free to Air.

The rest is trying to shunt people to Stan.

Wise?

Not if you want sponsors on cars.

[v8man]

Originally Posted by gomick

Too many options, Kayo/Foxtel or SBS. I aint paying for Stan when i have NETFLIX which i rarely watch, too hard...

I have Stan for the wife so last year I paid the extra $10 a month while TCR and Indy Cars were on but cancelled it once the racing finished last year, went it to pay to get it again this year but they want to charge me $15 a month on top of the $16 a month I pay now. To much for me to pay on the pension so no TCR or Indy Car for me this year.

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Still feels very much like SuperTouring when TOCA left the building..

MPC not having any spare driveshafts for the Audis certainly adds to the impression of cars being run on a tight budget!

In a way I think it's good that privateers persisted in the Australian Super Touring Championship. Seeing the BTCC with only 10 entries -- 9 works, 1 privateer was a shame. I don't understand why privateers in Britain weren't keen to run their outclassed '96 or '97-spec Super Tourers for the prestige of racing in the BTCC's top class even if they would qualify 2-3 seconds a lap or more off the shmick Prodrive Mondeos.

Of course, TCR cars are much cheaper to buy and are meant to be cheaper to run and durable compared to Super Tourers. Which they should be, if not for crash damage. See here how repairing Civic Type R TCR is similar to repairing a road-going Civic hatchback (complete with using doors from a wrecking yard), almost like it's actually a "touring car" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6xNIzV0X6k

Not sure why the carefully prepared MPC Audis were having issues!

Originally Posted by Mixer

Wise?

Not if you want sponsors on cars.

By wise, I mean better than no free-to-air at all!

As it turns out, TCR and the rest of Speed Series on 9Gem must generate less advertising (or other) revenue than old Westerns on 9Gem, so it is what it is!

Worst case: pay for the production, buy time on FTA to broadcast the coverage?
Neutral case: pay for the production, but provide it for free for a FTA broadcaster to broadcast on the understanding they keep the advertising revenue?
Solution they've taken: get paid but be used as a draw for 9's streaming service... not smart?

[racer69]

You would assume (hope) part of the reason for the small grid is jointly the fact that round 1 is in Tasmania and round 2 isn’t until May?

The fact the calendar still isn’t finalised doesn’t help either.

TCM backing up for Newcastle in two weeks wouldn’t help them either.

Then again pre-AVESCO touring car events in Tasmania always struggled to get above 15ish cars, apart from the odd exception so while it’s not a great look it also mightn’t be a worry come May.

On another note, Sweeney did it easy didn’t he.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks

Solution they've taken: get paid but be used as a draw for 9's streaming service... not smart?

ARG board took all the money from Stan, put the racing into a place where less people will see it, and gave none of the money to teams.

Smart maybe if you're ARG, but not smart if the idea was to grow the actual racing and make it so your teams can fund the racing with exposure.

TA2 grid seems healthy but TCR and S5000 are awfully thin.

In other TCR news:
https://wwos.nine.com.au/motorsport/...GIFivnVbShLftg

GRM to build Peugeot TCR car from 2024.

Can you imagine the ballyhoo if a majority shareholder in something like Supercars was also building a car? Not that there has been any majority shareholder in a long time.

I just don't get the hero worship for GRM as compared to the conspiracy theories that follow 888 around.

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by Mixer

GRM to build Peugeot TCR car from 2024.

Great news! It goes to show Australian outifts are capable of designing and building customer cars for the world market, just like I said!

Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks

You'd think with the spare capacity, that more of these engineering operations would back themselves to build and design mass-produced GT4, GT3 or TCR cars for the global racing car export market.

Yet there were skeptics:

Originally Posted by Mixer

TCR is stagnant and will never get any better than it is now - which isn't that great. Manufacturers are leaving, some to eTCR which is a whole other thing and I think may not last.

The GT3 move for DTM caused the series to collapse, so those ideas are all literal fantasy.

GRM securing the deal to build all Peugeot 308 TCRs show the idea of Australian racing car builders exporting to the world market to unequivocally NOT be a fantasy. Great stuff!

[Buckshot]

Originally Posted by v8man

I have Stan for the wife so last year I paid the extra $10 a month while TCR and Indy Cars were on but cancelled it once the racing finished last year, went it to pay to get it again this year but they want to charge me $15 a month on top of the $16 a month I pay now. To much for me to pay on the pension so no TCR or Indy Car for me this year.

Participating in motorsport has always been a rich mans game, now even just watching it is the same.

I'm lucky, I have a mate who lets me use his stan account for free and I throw him the extra $120 per year for the sports package as he's into it as well. If I didn't have that option of chipping in I wouldn't be watching.

I didn't know it had gone from $10 a month to $15...hope he doesn't notice !

I haven't watched a V8 Supercar or F1 race since 2014 when they went to Foxtel. I'm not paying those exorbitant rates !

[GTRMagic]

GRM to build Peugeot 308 TCR for the world

[chavez]

[QUOTE=Buckshot;4144960
I haven't watched a V8 Supercar or F1 race since 2014 when they went to Foxtel. I'm not paying those exorbitant rates ![/QUOTE]

I haven't watched a race since Movietone News stopped showing them in the picture theatres.

[ford71]

Originally Posted by v8man

I have Stan for the wife so last year I paid the extra $10 a month while TCR and Indy Cars were on but cancelled it once the racing finished last year, went it to pay to get it again this year but they want to charge me $15 a month on top of the $16 a month I pay now. To much for me to pay on the pension so no TCR or Indy Car for me this year.

Interesting.
I pay the extra $10 for Stan Sport. Had plans to cancel once Indycar was over and restart it for the 2023 season but got lazy and just kept it. Looks like that was the better move...note to self, Be more lazy.

But yes, it all adds up with Fox and Netflix also taking their share each month

[S griffin]

It's gonna be hard to find coverage this year. Just have to find what you can. TCR Australia doesn't seem to figure high in Aussie sports. Other sports seem to have priority

[FIRE]

@Mixer

Ashley Seward Motorsport (ASM) will introduce the Lynk & Co 03 to TCR Australia this year, with the car expected to début at Phillip Island in May with Tom Oliphant at the wheel.

ASM has run an Alfa Romeo Giulietta in the series since its inception in 2019, initially with Dylan O’Keeffe before running Lee Holdsworth and Jay Hanson in 2021 and Michael Caruso in 2022.

This year, former British Touring Car racer Oliphant joined the team, racing the Alfa in the season opener at Symmons Plains to a best finish of fourth.
...

https://www.touringcars.net/2023/03/...-tcr-australia

[Mixer]

Hmm ARG back to funding cars is it?

[one five five]

Interesting to read that Luke King is gone for the season.

Surprised to see the Lynk announcement now, I was thinking they might roll the big announcements out closer to Rd2

What’s happened to Nathan Morcom?

Originally Posted by Mixer

Hmm ARG back to funding cars is it?

Positivity as usual

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by one five five

Positivity as usual

It's a fair question - right now there is a fair exodus to Carrera Cup, TransAm and Super2 all along the lines that TCR doesn't offer the crowd or promotional opportunities of those other classes.

TransAm is still stuck on Stan, but you have to imagine that the difficulty in viewing TCR compared to Porsches or Super2 has to be part of the reason these comments are made.

it's pretty serious for TCR that up and comers who are not with GRM see that they need to go elsewhere. People are regularly graduating from Trans Am into Super2 but nobody from TCR.

Unless something is done, this could be the beginning of the end.

[V8 Fireworks]

Oliphant throws shade at the Alfa Romeo:

The difference between the Lynk & Co and Alfa Romeo is night and day.
It's a proper race car, they've clearly spent a lot of time and money developing the Lynk & Co. It's really responsive and you feel everything the car is going to do.

https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/new-tcr-...tralian-debut/

Interesting!

A shame then that not all that many customer cars were delivered compared to the more common cars like Audi, Honda etc, but at least the customer cars are coming out now.

The Lynk & Co certainly has some curious things like door bars that make it very difficult to get in and out of the car, which is unusual for a customer racing car as they usually have low door bars for ease of entry and exit to suit a variety of amateur racers.

Originally Posted by Mixer

Unless something is done, this could be the beginning of the end.

Yes, the category certainly needs a better commercial package. Perhaps more rounds and prominent free-to-air television and streaming. The cost to buy and run the cars themselves is very reasonable, so I don't think that running costs are the problem, more a lack of commercial exposure.

I would consider holding the Bathurst TCR world cup round as an international 1000km race too.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks

I would consider holding the Bathurst TCR world cup round as an international 1000km race too.

Never going to happen, nobody has got cars that will last the distance here and nobody is in a mood to spend money now.

My mail says Autoglym will get the deal of the century to make it look like ARG didn't buy that car and pay for Oliphant to drive it.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by Mixer

My mail says Autoglym will get the deal of the century to make it look like ARG didn't buy that car and pay for Oliphant to drive it.

https://australianracinggroup.com/20...R2arf2vaosODN8



It's a looker.

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by Mixer

It's a looker.

The livery does well to avoid emphasis on the upper set of headlights.

ARG boss Liam Curkpatrick does not seem confident on grid sizes:

We want to have as many cars running as possible. Sometimes it's just circumstances or bad luck. Talking to teams and drivers, we're confident it's not going to go backwards from there [13 cars].

https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/arg-boss...-size-marques/

He doesn't address how something needs to be done to make TCR a more attractive commercial package than Carrera Cup or Super 2. It's not like the cars cost more to run than those classes, as they do not.

It's not like TCRs are much slower than BTCC NGTC cars, as they are not. In Britain they are only about 1s/lap slower despite being around half of the price to buy or run than an NGTC car. As we have seen in WTCR or TCR Asia at Macau, TCR Europe and elsewhere, the cars are more then fast enough to produce close, exciting racing with cars being pushed hard.

Perhaps the cars are in fact cheaper (or no more expensive) to run than Trans Am TA2 even?

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks

He doesn't address how something needs to be done to make TCR a more attractive commercial package than Carrera Cup or Super 2. It's not like the cars cost more to run than those classes, as they do not.

It's a multi-layered problem but he cannot acknowledge the elephant in the room - Stan. ARG went from fundng all aspects of a very good show to removing all support and shunting the content into an unpopular streaming platform in one year,

TCR cars themselves are not a spectacle compared to Supercars or even TA2.

Market relevance is supposed to be the hook but when there are too few cars, the only well known drivers are retired Supercars drivers, and the best talent is elsewhere, it's hard to know how they can recover.

If ARG hadn't put together this Oliphant/Lynk and Co deal themselves it would be even worse.

If it were not for GRM it's likely that both S5000 and TCR would fall over as independent categories. When a majority shareholder in the category owner is running nearly half the cars, it's a major concern.

[banksie]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Market relevance is supposed to be the hook but when there are too few cars, the only well known drivers are retired Supercars drivers, and the best talent is elsewhere, it's hard to know how they can recover.

A MG3 Cup would have more market relevance than the cars on the grid.

Other than if GRM/ARG fund a drive in TCR, why would drivers be attracted to the category? Carrera Cup, Super 2/3, GT and Trans Am would all be more attractive categories.

[Umai Naa]

TCR globally is in a bit of a weird spot.

Exisiting championships that were previously strong are contracting, while others are growing. The cars have no trouble finding homes though.

Without ARG tipping money in, I think TCR Australia will continue sliding.

About a grid's worth of cars just sitting around;

1x Honda
4x Alfas
3x Audis
2x VWs
1x Cupra
3x Renaults
4x Hyundais

Although it'd still be cheaper to buy something out of Europe pre-raced with a whole heap of spares, compared to what's on the market here.

They're not an expensive nor difficult car to run, despite what a car preparer or lessor will tell you...

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by Umai Naa

Without ARG tipping money in, I think TCR Australia will continue sliding.

Other than a Lynk and Co and BTCC pilot ARG don't seem to be interested...

Not even a Fabian Coulthard or similar who might grab interest.

Transam is far and away the most competitive and interesting ARG category. Some might say the only one.