Revised calendar for the FIA TCR World Tour due to Red Sea restrictions
2023 KUMHO TCR World Tour race at Bathurst. Photo: Daniel Kalisz
The KUMHO FIA TCR World Tour yesterday published a revised calendar for its 2024 season, with the series dropping the two rounds in Australia from the back-end of the calendar due to logistical issues — with the series unable to get the cars and equipment from South America to Asia/Australia in time to compete in both China and Australia.
The reason for this is due to shipping restictions through the Suez Canal and past the Red Sea, due to activity by the Houthi movement in Yemen. Alternative routes would add a significant delay.
While erroneously reported in some circles as for “cost reasons”, the calendar change is solely due to the logistical issue imposed, as it’s impossible for the series to sea freight the cars from the previous round in Uruguay in time to travel to both the Zhuzhou circuit in China, and then to Australia before ending the season as planned in Macau on November 17th. The only solution would be to switch to air freight, which would place an unburdenable cost upon the teams which had already committed to the series.
Similar challenges have already affected a number of events, with teams either withdrawing or events scheduled in both the Intercontinental GT Challenge and the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The Australian rounds have therefore been removed, with the Chinese round moved from September to October 20th, where it’s expected to share with the season finale of the TCR China Touring Car Championship.
The series hopes to return to Australia in 2025, with last year’s two rounds arguably the highlight of the season, with a thrilling night race in mixed conditions, and with the local TCR Australia series contingent mixing it up with the TCR World Tour front-runners, with now current Supercars Championship points leader Will Brown taking two wins in his MPC-run Audi.
Bathurst then provided the series with a pair of epic circuits with which to end its season, one week before the challenging Guia circuit of Macau.
Revised 2024 KUMHO FIA TCR World Tour calendar
20–21 April — Vallelunga, Italy
03–04 May — Marrakech, Morocco
07–08 June — Mid-Ohio, USA
20–21 July — Interlagos, Brazil
03–04 August — El Pinar, Uruguay
19–20 October — Zhuzhou, China
14–17 November — Macau
