2019 TCR UK rumours and discussion

[thetool]

Originally Posted by sceptic

But even those countries can't count TCR as a success: Australia has 16 entries for this year, though only 7 of them actually have a confirmed driver.

Germany is doing slightly better with 19, but still a long way from a full grid.

Why do touring cars when you can race a GT3 Ferrari or Porsche for similar money, and thanks to the pro-am format, even be in contention for victories?

[Alessio]

Originally Posted by thetool

Why do touring cars when you can race a GT3 Ferrari or Porsche for similar money, and thanks to the pro-am format, even be in contention for victories?

Exposure I guess. In Britain, Italy and Germany at least, I reckon touring car racing has a greater following, plus you're the only driver compared to GT/endurance where you're sharing with at least one other driver. In a way, touring cars can be a form of a 'feeder series' to GT racing.

If you take Nicola Baldan in Italy as an example, his career stalled briefly before he returned in TCR Italy where he proved himself very well, ultimately earning himself consistent funding and a seat in the Italian GT championship. There are plenty of young drivers too, ie Giacomo Altoe, that have gone onto GT racing via TCR too.

Touring cars is also its own 'genre' of motorsport. If you do well in national/regional TCR, you could go on to race on the same grid as Tarquini, Muller, Priaulx etc. who were made legends by touring car racing..

[Umai Naa]

Originally Posted by thetool

Why do touring cars when you can race a GT3 Ferrari or Porsche for similar money, and thanks to the pro-am format, even be in contention for victories?

Case in point; Jens Reno Møller. Uncompetitive in TCR Europe. Swaps his Civic TCR for an NSX GT3, and wins a Blancpain Gentleman's cup race straight up.

[btccbloke]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

if you spent hundreds of thousand of pounds of your own money buying a car and parts and equipment for a standalone hyped championship that promised the world but was effectively canned after just one year then you think thats something that shouldnt be complained about!!

its totally disgusting that tcruk did this and amazing that some people on here think thats ok.

Sorry i must have missed the story where Dave Bartrum had a gun to his head while people were demanding he bought the Golfs.
If they hadnt researched what they were buying into prior to buying cars thats not really the series problem, besides they havent been lumbered with the cars, they can be shipped to any other TCR series

[redshoes]

Motorbase had no problem selling their Golf. A quick look at cars for sale will tell you that TCR cars hold their value pretty well. I'm not saying they didn't lose some money in the process, but it's not as if they had to write of the entire cost.

[peebee2]

Exactly, a reason why they are popular. Whereas series that run unique regs, like BTCC etc. have little used value in comparison.

[Alessio]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Motorbase had no problem selling their Golf. A quick look at cars for sale will tell you that TCR cars hold their value pretty well. I'm not saying they didn't lose some money in the process, but it's not as if they had to write of the entire cost.

There's no reason they shouldn't unless it's been significantly crash damaged at some point in its life. I've seen them sold in second hand running order for as low as £40,000 though.

[btccbloke]

All these people wanting to shed a tear for motorbase spending money on cars then not racing in the series because it wasnt financially viable really need to get a bit of a grip.
The decision any team will have taken to go racing will have been a calculated business one, not done one a whim, they will have bought in cars that they knew they would shift on if they couldn't make a go of it as they wanted. Motorbase have sold their car, others have sold cars on and because its a recognised formula worldwide, there is a decent market for the cars, others have kept theirs because TCT/TCR UK meets what they want to do at the moment.

I dont agree with some of the original marketing by TCR UK but its being run differently and sometimes you have to give these things a chance.

How about embracing the fact you now have a couple of different series you can be interested in (as cars drivers you know from the beloved BTCC may feature) rather than moan about the fact you have too much motorsport going on

[Alessio]

I think it's mostly just frustration that a very good concept was handled so poorly

[Rob877]

Originally Posted by btccbloke

How about embracing the fact you now have a couple of different series you can be interested in (as cars drivers you know from the beloved BTCC may feature) rather than moan about the fact you have too much motorsport going on

Sorry, but I can't agree with that at all. Too much motorsport going on is one of the biggest issues within the sport for me. We could have an amazing product if vested interests were put to one side and everyone did what was best for the sport as a whole. Having small grids of cars racing spaced out around a large circuit is not going to appeal to anyone but the most ardent of fans. I see this in all forms of motorsport, even short oval racing (autograss aside) has these issues of a fragmented sport who should really be sticking together. Motorsport faces enough issues in the future, fighting amongst each other is only going to speed up the inevitable.

Also, TCR is a great concept but I think no matter how well it was handled, it was going to be an uphill struggle to gain a foothold in the UK market.

[medius]

Four TCR cars at Silverstone today running in the Dunlop Endurance Championship, one being the Ex-Motorbase Golf ran by Maximum for Tim Docker. I'm sure we'll see him out this year in TCRUK too.

[btccbloke]

Originally Posted by Rob877

Sorry, but I can't agree with that at all. Too much motorsport going on is one of the biggest issues within the sport for me. We could have an amazing product if vested interests were put to one side and everyone did what was best for the sport as a whole. Having small grids of cars racing spaced out around a large circuit is not going to appeal to anyone but the most ardent of fans. I see this in all forms of motorsport, even short oval racing (autograss aside) has these issues of a fragmented sport who should really be sticking together. Motorsport faces enough issues in the future, fighting amongst each other is only going to speed up the inevitable.

Also, TCR is a great concept but I think no matter how well it was handled, it was going to be an uphill struggle to gain a foothold in the UK market.

ahh so you want it to be elitist rather than something people can get involved in?

[Rob877]

Originally Posted by btccbloke

ahh so you want it to be elitist rather than something people can get involved in?

Where did I say that? Motorsport could be streamlined (resulting in an all round stronger product) without just having 'elitist' series. Most of the motorsport I attend in a year is stock car racing, about as anti elitist as you can get.

All I'm getting at is that there are too many series essentially doing similar things, which I think is madness. And to bring it back round to the actual topic, this is why I think TCR was destined for failure no matter who ran it (unless BTCC adopted the formula).

[pescaraproductions]

Originally Posted by S griffin

To be fair at least the managed to get through a season. They got further than SCV8, T1 and BTEC

Would love a thread on failed UK championships and what details can be found on them. They tend to disappear into the void very fast. Had a fascinating chat with a guy involved with the Atom Cup on how that series went under in a very weird fashion.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by pescaraproductions

Would love a thread on failed UK championships and what details can be found on them. They tend to disappear into the void very fast. Had a fascinating chat with a guy involved with the Atom Cup on how that series went under in a very weird fashion.

There's been a few articles on Autosport about that in the past

[pescaraproductions]

Originally Posted by S griffin

There's been a few articles on Autosport about that in the past

Autosport covering club racing!? Surely not I've got list of them somewhere, tempted to turn it into a little YouTube series.

[S griffin]

Let us know when you have uploaded it, it sounds interesting

[Racing Harz]

Originally Posted by Umai Naa

Case in point; Jens Reno Møller. Uncompetitive in TCR Europe. Swaps his Civic TCR for an NSX GT3, and wins a Blancpain Gentleman's cup race straight up.

The pilots in the Blancpain GT Sports Club a really uncompetitive in the normal Blancpain Field and are normaly on the positions 45+ then they race there.

[S griffin]

Well they want a place for the amateurs and I think there is no harm in having them

[FIRE]

I don't see a problem, just don't make it more important than it is.

[pescaraproductions]

James Turkington is now entered, apparently in an ex Supercopa Seat Cup car. Soooooo not sure what class that's in but apparently Ciceley are running it, and he's not in the second Golf. Which much like a lot of last years cars, is sitting there being talked about but with zero drivers confirmed to be driving it yet

[S griffin]

Well good to see Colin's brother in it, the SEAT should be a good car. What class though? Nice to see Cicely help out. I just wish more teams will get their cars out

[Johno.UK]

It would have to be in the TCT class rather than TCR class surely as it's not a TCR car?

[S griffin]

Well surely that would be the case. I wish there was more info about this

[Petoli]

So Turkington will most likely be racing in a class specifically for a class for Seat Leon Cup Cars. TCT being made up of 4 classes. NGTC,TCR,S2000 and Seat Leons. All classes eligible for the overall TCT championship. As well as their own individual classes. So the TCR class winner will be the TCRUK winner. At least thata how i understand it. Some clarification would be nice though