• TCR WORLD TOUR AVOID COMMENT WHILE CONFIRMING AUSTRALIAN ROUND
• CONVERSATIONS SUGGEST DEAL COULD BE IMMINENT
• LAST WTCC UK ROUND WAS 2011
• CIRCUIT RUMOURED TO BE DONINGTON PARK
• NINE WEEK SUMMER GAP IN TCR UK SCHEDULE

By Mick Palmer

Despite years of chatter about international level Touring Car racing coming back to the UK for the first time since 2011, there has not been any serious, credible moves to really cement a British date for the highest level of Tin Top action at a UK circuit in the last decade.

Apart from a brief return for the DTM in 2018/19, and the TCR dominated Hankook 24 Hours of Silverstone in 2018, domestic Touring Car racing in the form of the BTCC, and latterly TCR UK, has been the only Touring Car fare available to British race fans. If swirling rumours across the TCR UK championship showdown at Silverstone last weekend turn out to be true, it appears that the UK could finally be on the verge of grabbing a slot on the TCR World Tour calendar next season.

A loose lips moment from a couple of mechanics referring to a TCR UK closed door entrants/drivers meeting concerning 2025 held at Silverstone last Friday included the words: “Got to come back next year to race against Michelisz and Björk.” With a little bit of prodding that was expanded to include ‘Donington National.’ Further chat around the paddock, which did include a lot of ‘can’t say anything’ when direct questions about the subject were raised, did offer confirmation, mainly via the way that ‘no comment’ was delivered when the subject had been spoken about.

Touring Car Magazine contacted the relevant departments at TCR World Tour, TCR UK and Donington operator MSV to get the official line on whether the rumours that a mixed TCR World Tour/TCR UK race meeting was on the cards for next year.

No reply was forthcoming from MSV. From TCR UK it was: “We are unable to comment on the TCR World Tour and their plans for 2025,” but the official response from TCR World Tour, or rather the timing of their chosen words, draws a bit of intrigue.

“I’m afraid we can’t make any comment on next year’s calendar until it is approved by the FIA Motor Sport Council,” was the wording of the statement when directly asked if the World Tour will race at Donington with TCR UK next season. Within hours of that response the TCR World Tour announced a return to Australia for 2025, at The Bend with TCR Australia – that was a confirmation. It was made before the upcoming schedule has been ratified by the FIA.

TCR UK has two large gaps in its calendar for 2025, initially leading to some gossip (which crops up yearly) that either the TCR World Tour, or TCR Europe will appear in one of those slots. There are nine empty weekends between the TCR UK Oulton Park July 5^th round, and the September 14^th Snetterton meeting which would be an ideal place to fit in a big TCR event.

After Snetterton there is a further six weekends free before the November final round, leading to further chatter that the European Championship could also be looking to organise a UK date, although at Touring Car magazine we are yet to hear from any solid sources that this is a consideration. The explanation for the Snetterton/Brands Hatch gap is that it is simply down to the championship delaying the end of the season to be part of the incredibly popular Brands Hatch fireworks spectacular.

In previous years the excuse for TCR World Tour and TCR Europe avoiding the UK has been extra paperwork and costs and time surrounding entry and exit to and from the UK due to Brexit regulations. Teams involved in the GT World Challenge and historic racing entering the country over the last few seasons have not reported that the perceived difficulty of European/UK travel is actually affecting border crossings for race teams. It has been a similar tale for British entities (British GT, BSB, Club Racing) heading to Europe and returning for competition. TCR UK itself was initially set for Zandvoort on a draft calendar for 2025 (as is the case with a proposed return to Knockhill, that appears to have been scuppered by a reticence in potential support championships.)

The mention of a Donington round does fit into an envisioned scenario from past years. Back in 2019, when Maximum Motorsport ran the combined Touring Car Trophy/TCR UK championship, promoter Stewart Lines told Motor Racing UK Magazine at the time, when TCR Europe was being openly courted for a UK round, that Donington would make perfect sense for a travelling TCR series to race. A sentiment – for the same reasons – that was shared by Creventic teams after their 2018 race at Silverstone, and one of a number of reasons why those racers have not returned to the ‘home of British motorsport.’

The location of East Midlands Airport adjacent to the circuit, solid rail infrastructure and an additional two freight entry points for trucks – ferries to The Humber and The Port of Tyne – in addition to Dover and Channel Tunnel routes, allows for both World and European TCR concerns to have an easier entry to the UK, and to a central based circuit with two FIA Grade Two layouts.

The lineage for TCR World Tour travels back through the former World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) and World Touring Car Championship. The last WTCC event in the UK took place in 2011 at Donington Park – the year before current BTCC racer Rob Huff claimed the WTCC title. At the time British Tin Top fans had both the WTCC and DTM (at Brands Hatch) to vie for their interest alongside the national BTCC. Arguably, the DTM proved more to their taste which led to the WTCC to heading to pastures new.

The UK has a strong international link with Tin Tops beyond national championships. The ETCC of the eighties and the FIA Touring Car World Cup of the nineties (along with the DTM/ITC offerings of the time) were big draws before the likes of Andy Priaulx, James Thompson and Rob Huff came to the fore in ETCC/WTCC, and the likes of Gary Paffet, Jamie Green and Paul di Resta in the DTM. In recent, TCR years, drivers like Huff and triple BTCC champ Gordon Shedden haven’t quite elicited the same response, as the international championships have veered towards a more Far and Middle Eastern rotation.

It would appear, while Touring Car racing in the UK with BTCC and TCR UK is starting to show an upturn in popularity after a few years of financial hits, that now would be an ideal moment for intercontinental racing to return, despite some obvious challenges.

The immediate barrier, should the current rumours and denials lead to an actual date for 2025, would include UK teams adapting to running Kumho tyres instead of the local Goodyear rubber. That is the case with TCR China teams this weekend in Zhuzhou, who are used to running on Michelin tyres. As has been seen over the last couple of seasons the Khumo setup isn’t always a disadvantage with circuit knowledge for locals sometimes making up for that, as would likely be the case with a Donington round.

Any move for TCR World Tour into the UK market would have to consider the BTCC effect. A key to any successful sojourn to these shores would need some careful treading, not for the fear of stepping on toes, but in finding a gap in the BTCC calendar that is perfect for attracting British fans to Donington, while allowing TCR UK competitors who are entering the race to not interfere with their domestic schedule.

The date that was mentioned as ideal in the TCR UK paddock for 2025 was a theoretical July 20th race day, in the centre of the BTCC mid-season break, two weeks after TCR UK at Oulton and the British GP, and two weeks before the resumption of the BTCC season.

The fact that conversations off the record at Silverstone pointed to a strong possibility that TCR World Tour will arrive in the UK in 2025, along with the fact that there has not been a straight ‘no’ to any enquiries, means that for the first time since the pandemic that talk of a visit to Britian by international Touring Car racing for once actually holds water, but we will seemingly have to wait until the Macau Guia round over the November 14-17 weekend at the earliest to see where the TCR World Tour will be heading next year.