TCR International Series
The TCR International Series is an international Touring Car championship. The championship – founded by former World Touring Car Championship boss Marcello Lotti [1] – is marketing itself as a cost-effective spin-off of the WTCC, targeted at C-category tin-top racing cars. The title TCR goes after the naming convention now used by the FIA to classify the cars that rival in touring car racing, with TC1 referring to the top tier as used by the FIA WTCC and TC2 referring to the legacy cars which principally contest in the FIA ETCC.
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On fifteen July Lotti exposed further details on the TCR series. [Two] On the same day it was announced that the TCR series will award a Drivers’ Championship title and a Teams’ Championship title. The number of teams will be limited to eight and the number of competitors to twenty-four. It was also announced that the series will run alongside Formula One at selected events.
On twenty one July more details about the series became available: [Trio] the race weekend format will be structured like the WTCC, with two free practice sessions and a two part qualifying session, followed by two races on Sunday. The very first event would take place in Italy in March, but when a provisional calendar for the two thousand fifteen season was released on thirty one October, [Four] it became clear that the very first event will take place at the Sepang International Circuit on twenty nine March. Lotti confirmed the technical principles of the SEAT León Cup Racer, which is also set to be adopted in the Single-Make Trophy category of the European Touring Car Cup in 2015, will be used by the TCR Series.
On twenty nine July former WTCC driver Pepe Oriola said in an interview with TouringCarTimes that he hopes to rival in the fresh series, because he was set to drive for the Onyx Race Engineering team in the two thousand fourteen WTCC season with their fresh Ford Fiesta TC1 car for the last part of the season, before the project was abandoned with no support for homologation from Ford. [Five]
On fifteen September the TCR organisation announced the very first cars, teams, regulations and events of its inaugural season in 2015. [6] Target Competition became the very first team to confirm entry in the series and will run SEAT León Eurocup cars in 2015. Onyx Race Engineering has also confirmed they are developing the Ford Concentrate for the championship.
A week later Paolo Coloni Racing announced plans to come in the championship in 2015. [7] Team principal Paolo Coloni, son of F1-team founder Enzo Coloni, is known for its accomplishments in the GP2 Series in two thousand five and in two thousand nine to 2012. The team will confirm at a later date their planned car and driver line-up.
On thirty one October a provisional calendar for its inaugural season was released. [Four] It will consist of twelve weekends, four in Asia, five in Europe, two in South America and one to be announced.
On seven November the fourth team was announced: the Swedish STCC team WestCoast Racing will join the series with three Honda Civics build by JAS Motorsport. On twenty November Liqui Moly Team Engstler announced they will participate with Volkswagen Golfs and Franz Engstler will be driving one of the VWs.
On five December the series was approved by the FIA and renamed TCR International Series instead of using the original TC3 International Series name.
On twenty seven January Marcello Lotti announced three fresh teams for the inaugural season: Zengő Motorsport, Proteam Racing and Campos Racing. [8] On thirteen February Jordi Oriola announced he will be driving a Target Competition SEAT at Valencia and Monza [9] and Mikhail Grachev was confirmed on seventeen February at Engstler Motorsport. [Ten] In the end of February and in March almost half of all the drivers were confirmed, but just one week from the very first round in Sepang Onyx Race Engineering, Paolo Coloni Racing and Proteam Racing have not confirmed a single driver. On twenty March the TCR International Series organisation announced the very first TV deals for the inaugural season. [11] On twenty nine May, David Sonenscher announces the TCR Thailand Series, embarking from 2016. [12]