TCR confirmed for Australia

The exciting Touring Car Racing category is officially heading Down Under.

Australian motoring enthusiasts have reason to celebrate today with the announcement that a new racing category – TCR – will kick off in Australia from next year.

2 August, 2018


It’s official. The tremendously successful Touring Car Racing (TCR) Series is coming to Australia, the Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) announcing that Australian Racing Group (ARG) has been granted commercial and promotional rights to the series.

A newly-formed Australian business, the Australian Racing Group, headed up by Matt Braid, intends to have racing underway in the new category by late next year, providing Australian motorsport enthusiasts and teams alike with a new and exciting class of racing.

“TCR has proven itself to be an extremely popular, exciting and successful category in many countries around the world, and we look forward to working with competitors, manufacturers and event promotors to successfully launch the TCR series in Australia,” said Matt Braid of the announcement.

CAMS CEO, Eugene Arocca, echoed the sentiment, saying: 

“This is a very exciting development for motor sport in Australia and already the interest in TCR has been very promising, from both a competitor and manufacturer stand point.”

“We look forward to seeing TCR start off strong and go from strength-to-strength as TCR makes its mark on Australian motor sport.”

A newly-formed Australian business, the Australian Racing Group, intends to have racing underway in the new category by late next year

Eligible cars include all front-wheel drive C-Segment hatchbacks or sedans, powered by production–based turbocharged petrol or diesel engines with a capacity of up to 2-litres

Already tremendously success all over the world, the category is exciting and affordable. There are currently four internationally-sanctioned TCR Series competing around the world, plus 12 national or regional series utilising the TCR regulations as their main rule book. Eligible cars include all front-wheel drive C-Segment hatchbacks or sedans, powered by production–based turbocharged petrol or diesel engines with a capacity of up to 2-litres and boasting 420Nm of torque. Already, the Audi RS 3 LMS has enjoyed outstanding success internationally in the category and there has been great interest in the car here in Australia since speculation on the TCR series began circulating last year.

Audi Australia has had an RS 3 LMS in the country for the past year, employing it as part of the RS 3 Sedan press launch and also using it for evaluation purposes while negotiations between CAMS and interested motoring bodies continued as to the viability of a local TCR series.

Audi Sport customer racing is already well established in Australia, supporting teams racing in the Australian GT series in the hugely successful Audi R8 LMS, and the announcement that the TCR category will go ahead Down Under is expected to see an even greater Audi presence on Australian race tracks.

Commenting on the announcement, CEO of the TCR  Series internationally, Marcello Lotti said: “We have been absolutely delighted, earlier this year, to sign a deal with CAMS for launching a TCR series in Australia. CAMS is the driving force behind the success of Australian motorsport, and their involvement is a guarantee of a bright future for TCR Australia.”

“Now that this new series has been definitely scheduled to start in 2019, we can’t wait for the opening event.” 

Audi Sport customer racing is already well established in Australia, supporting teams racing in the Australian GT series in the hugely successful Audi R8 LMS