The KUMHO TCR World Tour takes shape
The new top tier of global touring car competition is fast taking shape, with key sponsorship announcements and competitor announcements ahead of the first season of the new competition, organised by the rights holders of the TCR technical concept which has dominated the touring car landscape since 2015.
I’m going to run through a bit of how this novel concept works, as it’s not quite like any traditional motorsport category, and it also goes hand-in-hand with the KUMHO TCR World Ranking, also a unique concept - at least in motorsport - though it’s a fairly common in sports with a ball, it’s new to one with tyres.
The KUMHO TCR World Tour was announced in October last year, hot on the heels on the news that the WTCR - FIA World Touring Car Cup would cease to exist after a five-year stint.
That FIA World Cup started with a bang in 2018, and in its first two years it was almost having to turn entries away, but from 2020 a number of factors worked against the series and it sadly shut down at the end of last year, with its final round held on November 27 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia - with Mikel Azcona the series’ final champion, driving for Hyundai.
So, what is the KUMHO TCR World Tour, and how is it different to WTCR?
First, some background. TCR’s rights holders WSC Group have been working hard ever since launching its TCR International Series in 2015 to work with a number of promoters in various countries, regions, and existing championships to build what WSC president Marcello Lotti calls “the touring car pyramid”.
The concept is very much that with the same cars, you could work your way up the ‘ladder’ to eventually compete at the top level in the world championship. The only change has been what the top of that pyramid was. Initially it was the TCR International Series, which was effectively divided into two categories in 2018, with WTCR and TCR Europe both the championship’s natural successors.
Now, with WTCR gone, the KUMHO TCR World Tour is the new top tier. Except the biggest difference is that this isn’t a standalone championship.
Instead, the tour will join up with a number of the already established regional and national championships.
It’s already been confirmed to be joining up with three rounds of the highly-competitive TCR Europe series, a non-championship round of the TCR Italy championship, two rounds of the TCR South America series, and then two with TCR Australia, with a final round still to be announced.
There’s a limit of up to 16 full-season entries, though this is a maximum limit. The cars committed to the KUMHO TCR World Tour will join the grids of these highly-competitive local series, which have featured front-running drivers such as Pepe Oriola, Franco Girolami, Tom Coronel, Josh Files, Niels Langeveld, Salvatore Tavano, Will Brown, Tony D’Alberto, Bernardo Llaver, and Raphael Reis.
This means that the cars of the KUMHO TCR World Tour will compete in the same race as a local championship, although each series will count its own winner. The top drivers in the KUMHO TCR World Tour will effectively fight directly on track with the drivers of the regional or national series which hosts them, in the same cars, with the same Balance of Performance measures, and the same Kumho Ecsta control tyres.
With the championships with which the KUMHO TCR World Tour is joining up with having boasted grids of more than 20 cars last year, it’s likely there’ll be grids of more than 30 cars regularly during the course of the 2023 season.
The series will award its own drivers’ and teams’ champions at the end of the year, and the top 15 drivers in the drivers’ ranking will get an automatic invite to the TCR World Ranking Final, and event which will also see the top 45 drivers from the KUMHO TCR World Ranking invited to compete in a single, one-off event which will also allocate a drivers’, teams’ and manufacturers’ title, with more information about the event, and where and when it will take place to be announced nearer the time.
The 2022 TCR Europe series competing at Spa-Francorchamps. Photo: TCR Europe media
Where is the KUMHO TCR World Tour racing?
A partial provisional calendar has already been announced, with the season finale still to be announced as the final details are worked through.
The series will visit four continents, as well as some of the world’s most iconic circuits, including Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, and Mount Panorama in Australia.
2023 KUMHO TCR World Tour calendar
28-30 April – Autodrómo de Algarve, Portimão - Portugal (TCR Europe)
26-28 May – Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps - Belgium (TCR Europe)
9-11 June – Autodromo Piero Taruffi Vallelunga - Italy (TCR Italy Cup)
16-18 June – Hungaroring - Hungary (TCR Europe)
18-20 August – Autódromo Víctor Borrat Fabini, El Pinar - Uruguay (TCR South America)
25-27 August – San Luis - Argentina (TCR South America)
3-5 November – TBA - Australia (TCR Australia)
10-12 November – Mount Panorama, Bathurst - Australia (TCR Australia)
17-19 November – TBA (TCR Asia Challenge)
Norbert Michelisz’s Hyundai Elantra N TCR at the Aragon circuit in Spain, 2022. Photo: WTCR media
Who’s taking part?
The deadline for entries is just a day away, though a number of programmes have already been announced by the competing teams.
Continuing on with the customer racing concept which has been key to TCR since its inception, there are no fully-fledged manufacturer entries permitted, though manufacturers do build and sell cars for competition through their customer racing divisions, as well as providing technical support and even drivers to the privateer teams that are entered.
So far, Comtoyou Racing, the Belgian squad which won last year’s TCR Europe series with Franco Girolami, has confirmed it’ll run four cars from Audi Sport, the new RS 3 LMS gen II.
Cyan Racing, the Swedish touring car powerhouse, will run four of the Geely Group Motorsport-developed Lynk & Co 03 TCRs, and today announced its first two drivers, 2020 TCR China drivers’ champion Ma Qing Hua, and 2017 World Touring Car champion Thed Bjork.
Hyundai Motorsport has also confirmed that it’ll be represented by two Elantra N TCRs, with the detail of which team will run the cars, and who will be driving them to be announced closer to the season start in late April.
