South Korea new for 2020 — plus, my own “perfect calendar”

The WTCR — FIA World Touring Car Cup calendar has now been announced, and the calendar is very similar to last year’s, with just two new events — the already announced new race at the Aragon circuit in Spain, and a brand new race at the Inje-Speedium in South Korea — giving Hyundai a home race, with the Japanese round at the popular Suzuka circuit in effect making way.

The other race that is gone is, as was already known, Zandvoort — as the Dutch track will indeed be a pile of sand for much of the year, as it prepares for Max Verstappen’s arrival with the full Formula 1 circus.

So you don’t have to hunt down this article for it, let’s get that out of the way — here’s the calendar:

2020 WTCR — FIA World Touring Car Cup calendar

Apr 5th — Marrakech, Morocco

Apr 26th — Hungaroring, Hungary

May 23rd — Nürburgring, Germany

Jun 7th — Slovakiaring, Slovakia

Jun 21st — Vila Real, Portugal

Jul 5th — Aragon, Spain

Sept 6th — Ningbo, China

Oct 18th — Inje-Speedium, South Korea

Nov 22nd — Macau, SAR of China

Dec 13th — Sepang, Malaysia

This means there continues to be a defined European/Asian leg to the calendar, as has been the case for the best part of five years now.

See how localised the points are — with South Korea, China, Macau and Malaysia over on the right, and the races in Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Morocco on the left.

Part of the reason for this half-and-half split of Europe and Asia in the calendar, is that the WTCR avoids the need for air freight.

Unlike the FIA Formula 1 World Championship and the FIA World Rally Championship, which both jump around the globe so much that they have to leap across the world by aeroplane, the WTCR does it by teams trucking their own cars and infrastructure around Europe — before the championship’s logistics partner DHL, puts all the cars, spares, equipment — and if rumours are believed, some mechanics*, into sea freight at the end of the European season, and they slowly make their way to Asia — also known as the “mid-season break.”

This helps saves the planet by keeping those CO2 emissions down. It also, very much coincidentally, is significantly cheaper. Very coincidental that — go planet!

Of course, any FIA championship’s calendar is highly influenced by commercial factors. Circuits, or countries, that want to spend more promoting their region or motorsport programmes, will chase down an FIA championship appearance of any kind (Formula 1 first of course). Countries that are less bothered by this, won’t — so, sorry, that’s why it’s nine years in a row, no race in the UK, and that won’t be changing any time soon — unless Brexit somehow happens to make the UK Europe’s single largest economy.

So, you can’t blast the calendar for what it is…it’s like it is for a reason — and there are still some incredible events there. Actually, the Asian circuits promote overtaking more than the European ones — and while the Nürburgring Nordschleife is a highlight as part of the 24-hour race, it’s not the greatest of tracks for a touring car race — and Vila Real is a street race which is even more crazy than Macau, but with one less overtaking opportunity — leaving it with none.

My ideal calendar

The last time I tried to put a championship season together in RaceRoom, the ‘official’ WTCR game, I was limited, as a few of the circuits from the real-life calendar haven’t been added — so that gave me the opportunity to come up with my own ‘world championship calendar’ — and I made it, pretending I had the same logistical challenges in place.

So, here is my dream world touring car calendar , with the tracks mostly as you’ll find in RaceRoom— and also, if anyone has just skipped through this article straight to the bottom, they’re going to be a little disappointed next year if they missed this and thought that what’s next is the actual calendar:

Round 1 — Monza, Italy

Lock up your helmets and your laptops — starting the season in Monza was a regular occurrence in the previous WTCC, and it’s a fantastic circuit for touring car racing. When WTCC went back there with TC1 in 2017, we all shouted “why we did we stop coming here?” before immediately, again, we stopped going there.

Round 2 — Brands Hatch Indy, UK

The WTCC’s big mistake was going to the Grand Prix circuit between 2006 and 2010, missing out on one of touring car racing’s best fan tracks. The GP loop is the one the drivers call out for, but the Indy circuit is the one for the spectators— that means more laps, and more times around Paddock Hill and Druids, and with 90% of the circuit visible from almost any vantage point.

Round 3 — Salzburgring, Austria

I can already hear Jean-Karl Vernay screaming “no!” here, as he, among many others, blasted the tyre-killing circuit in Austria which pitched his car into a roll two years’ ago. That’s the thing about Salzburg, every year there’s a story. This crazy little circuit delivers some bizarre races, from the 2013 slipstream controversy, to the race-leader punctures from 2012 which saw Stefano D’Aste take a shock win.

Then came the 2017 TCR races which saw both the WRT Golfs of Rob Huff and Vernay written-off, with Vernay forced to nurse a broken rib for the rest of his title charge.

Round 4 — Zolder, Belgium

“What? Not Spa!?” — no, not Spa. Spa is amazing circuit, it’s great for Formula 1 and sports cars, but for touring cars, the short, nippy Zolder circuit is far more suitable. Not on the WTCC calender since 2011, where Gabriele Tarquini managed to keep back the Cruzes of Rob Huff and Alain Menu in an underpowered SEAT León TDI, it hosted some exciting rounds of the now defunct TCR Benelux Touring Car Championship over the years.

It’s also on the TCR Europe series calendar next year as part of their tie-in with the TCR Benelux trophy.

Round 5 — Skellefteå, Sweden

Sweden’s newest circuit is up in the north, north, north of Sweden — and this track hosted a round of the TCR Scandinavia championship this year as its first major event. A surprisingly large crowd turned up for the “Midnight Sun” race, held in the Swedish mid-summer, where it’s so close to the arctic circle, it doesn’t actually get dark overnight. So many turned up in fact, they were unable to sell tickets at the gate fast enough, and just had to let everyone in.

The only stipulation here would be, unlike the TCR Scandi race, which took place in the evening — let’s actually make this one a midnight race, just as the sun sets and barely falls over the horizon before it comes back again at 1:30am. Insane.

Oh, but this isn’t in RaceRoom yet — so if you’re playing the game, choose Knutstorp instead. That’s in the south, south, south of Sweden.

Round 6 — Portimao, Portugal

Right, get the boats ready, as this is the last European round — this time at Portimao — mainly as it’s been off the calendar for a while. Vila Real is a challenge, but without the joker lap, also too much of a challenge to pass — whereas the modern Portimao circuit in the south of Portugal has hosted many an exciting touring car race, with French motor-racing star Michel Vaillant himself even having made an appearance.

Round 7 — Laguna Seca, USA

OK, so, what we’ve done here is sent the boats the wrong way. It’ll lead to two long breaks no doubt — but the boats will somehow get to America (this is for the logistics people to sort), and the WTCC/WTCR will race in the USA again for the first time since 2013 —last time Sonoma, now at the Laguna Seca Raceway. There’s no shortage of amazing US circuits to pick from, but let’s start with this one. Maybe we’ll go to Watkins Glen in 2021?

Round 8 — Buriram, Thailand

Only on the WTCC calendar once, this new facility in the middle of absolutely nowhere in Thailand (Bangkok, Phuket, and Buriram ?— nope, that’s not anyone’s Thailand grand slam list) — this circuit is a great new facility and concept, parked up right next to the Buriram football stadium. The dusk-set WTCC race it did host in 2016 was incredible, and was ruined only by fading light forcing the race to finish prematurely under a red flag.

Round 9 — Bathurst, Australia

I know I’m testing the boats a little — but this is needed — yes, somehow, the fictional WTCR calendar would include a trip to this iconic, and let’s face it, the best circuit in the world. The TCR cars zipping up and down Mount Panorama would be simply epic, and I’d even say this should be the finale, but…

Round 10 — Macau, SAR of China

…the season should end, as it always should end, at the terrifyingly mad Macau circuit, and also — as I’ve just realised, the only “street race” on my dream calendar. We’ll see what we can do about having some more of those in 2021.

*- to be absolutely clear, no mechanics are shipped around the world in containers — that was a joke. I haven’t even been asked to add this — I just know someone will think I was serious.