TCR Australia 2023

[one five five]

Too early to start a roll call for next year?

Honda/Wall Racing:
Tony D’Alberto? (If the new cars won’t be delivered until April, does Honda Australia have any incentive to back an old model for half a year)
Any takers for the ex-STAN car?
What ever happened to John Martin?

Zac Souter - Presumably back again

Hyundai/HMO
3x Elantra’s or still an i30?
Nathan Morcom - ran at the front at Bathurst in Race 2, presumably has a drive as long as he wants it
Josh Buchan - setup for a championship challenge
Bailey Sweeney - Super2?

Luke King - Presumably back again?

Audi/MPC
Jay Hanson - Super 2?
Will Brown - Probably depends on liqui Moly
Michael Clemente - a one off at Bathurst or now a full year with them?
Lachlan Mineef - found form at Bathurst , back again?
Any more new spec Audi’s coming?

Peugeot:
Aaron Cameron - made noises on the parked up podcast he was moving to super 2 next year
Dylan O’Keefe - concentrate on Porsches?
Jordan Cox - setup to chase the title next year
Ben Bargwanna - presumably back again

Renault:
Are they still going to press on with them?
Does Moffat want a quicker car?
Kody Garland again or does another graduate of the Ambrose combine take the spot?

ASM - only a one car effort and only team with an Alfa, would they move on next year?
Michael Caruso - does he want to still run mid-pack? Does he need a full season drive to stay relevant for Supercars co-driving duties?

Brad Shiels/Tilton?
The ex-Mineef Volkswagons
Braydon Willmington
Toyota?
Lynk & Co?
Cupra?

Not a lot of news yet and not really that long until round 1 next year. Is that a worry? Next year is supposed to be the biggest yet for TCR Australia with two rounds of the World Series after all

Originally Posted by Umai Naa

My understanding is that the car used, previously carried the Stan livery.

Was definitely the Clemente car, had all his sponsor signage and his name still on the passenger dashboard area

[cavvy]

'Cyan Racing will make its Australian debut when it competes in this year’s TCR World Tour round at Bathurst.

The Swedish squad will compete in the inaugural nine-round world series, which includes an outing at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International, which is set to be held at Mount Panorama on November 10-12.

In addition to the Bathurst outing, a second TCR World Tour round is expected to be held in Australia this year, with discussions underway with circuit owners about hosting opportunities.'

https://www.speedcafe.com/2023/01/07...an-racing-tcr/

I was fortunate to be around in 1987.

My only concern is support the coverage on Stan will generate.

[GTRMagic]

When the FIA mob were officiating technical scrutineers in each of 1987 and 1988, they seemed to be interested in measuring race car dimensions with representative road cars. From memory it meant a quorum of road going Ford Sierras, and a large number of HSV TWR VL Group A Commodores were unofficially barred from the circuit, lest the cars get measured..

Now to do that with a CYAN, a road going version might need to actually exist…

[Umai Naa]

Hence the majority of the WTCR paddock being happy to see the back of them when they stomped out.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Now to do that with a CYAN, a road going version might need to actually exist…

Or someone might want to see a car sold at an agreed price, and a genuine factory team not actually operating?

[FIRE]

Correct me if I am wrong but the Lynk & Co 03 is only on sale in China.
In two years time the 01 is sold almost 4000 times in The Netherlands.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Or someone might want to see a car sold at an agreed price, and a genuine factory team not actually operating?

Mattias Andersson

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Mattias Andersson

Where?

The only other cars are the cars "sold" and running in China... by Geely Motorsport

So not sold at all.

Should have been DQ'd from their first WTCR for noncompliance within 90 days, but organisers have no balls.

[pimmy]

There are Lynk & Co's in South America too.

[JMeissner]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Where?

The only other cars are the cars "sold" and running in China... by Geely Motorsport

So not sold at all.

Should have been DQ'd from their first WTCR for noncompliance within 90 days, but organisers have no balls.

Let's stick to facts, please.

No rules were broken by them.

Cars are being independently run in South America: https://www.tcr-series.com/news/item...e-lynk-co-cars
And Scandinavia: https://www.stcc.se/team-stcc/tba-4/

The 03 is Lynk & Co's most sold model in China, launched in 2018: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynk_%26_Co_03
And the 01 model is available in Europe since 2021: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynk_%26_Co_01

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by JMeissner

No rules were broken by them.

TCR cars are meant to be sold at a fixed price to teams on request within 90 days of competition.

Lynk and Co didn't sell a car for 3 years. They are 100% factory team and gamed BOP by never allowing cars into National TCR competitions.

Organisers should have stood up to them but they pandered because it's China.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Mixer

TCR cars are meant to be sold at a fixed price to teams on request within 90 days of competition.

Lynk and Co didn't sell a car for 3 years. They are 100% factory team and gamed BOP by never allowing cars into National TCR competitions.

Organisers should have stood up to them but they pandered because it's China.

So who ordered cars that Lynk & Co failed to deliver to?

Let's assume the following:

Lynk & Co completed the development of the 03 just prior to the start of the 2019 World Touring Car Cup and completed the WSC Technical process. At this time, it would be highly likely that no other competitor would place an order for the 2019 season.

Having then competed in the 2019 World Touring Car Cup an entry was completed in TCR China.
Since then, the car has competed in South America and Scandinavia.

3 years? - they sold cars in years 1, 2 and 3.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

So who ordered cars that Lynk & Co failed to deliver to?

Someone in APAC with serious racing pedigree had an immediate standing order for a car and it was never available.

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Having then competed in the 2019 World Touring Car Cup an entry was completed in TCR China.
Since then, the car has competed in South America and Scandinavia.

The China team is arms length from manufacturer, or not even - branded as Geely motorsport.

By the time these other cars got out they'd already bagged titles and ****ed off Hyundai - easily sandbagging for favourable BoP.

The point of TCR is worldwide customer racing that provides fair and balanced racing.

You think after they won their first title more people didn't want to buy cars?

Lynk and Co did not ever compete in the spirit of the rules like Honda, Hyundai, Audi etc all have.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Someone in APAC with serious racing pedigree had an immediate standing order for a car and it was never available.

Which team?
When was the order placed?
How does that order date align with the WSC registration?

[Mixer]

Someone with SERIOUS racing cred.

Order placed almost immediately after deal was struck for TCR to run here.

There was never any progress on the order. This car was never openly for sale at an agreed price, which is the rules for TCR.

Perhaps ask why China and Scandinavia would have cars running? I wonder where Cyan and Geely are...

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Someone with SERIOUS racing cred.

Order placed almost immediately after deal was struck for TCR to run here.

There was never any progress on the order. This car was never openly for sale at an agreed price, which is the rules for TCR.

Well clearly something is out with your information here.

The deal to run TCR in Australia was announced in January 2018, and so the deal will have been struck prior to this date. I'm not sure how someone can place an order almost immediately after this for a car that was not registered with WSC until 2019?

In accordance with the WSC regulations of 2018/19, the earliest that Lynk&Co had to process any order was after certification was completed. To achieve certification, they had 12 months to produce 10 units after application for Technical Acceptance was submitted.

Only once certification was completed would they be required to make the car available for customers. In Sep 2019 the order details and price were published (130K EUR) with the notified delivery date of Q1 2020.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Someone with SERIOUS racing cred.

Order placed almost immediately after deal was struck for TCR to run here.

There was never any progress on the order. This car was never openly for sale at an agreed price, which is the rules for TCR.

Perhaps ask why China and Scandinavia would have cars running? I wonder where Cyan and Geely are...

But PMO Motorsport is in Argentina.

I agree that Teamwork Motorsport and Cyan Racing have close links to Lynk & Co but that isn't any different to Italian BRC Racing and Hyundai. IIRC before the cooperation BRC was only active in rally.

But left or right PMO Motorsport (3 cars) and MA:GP (1 car) are Lynk & Co customer teams.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by FIRE

I agree that Teamwork Motorsport and Cyan Racing have close links to Lynk & Co but that isn't any different to Italian BRC Racing and Hyundai. IIRC before the cooperation BRC was only active in rally.

And should we not throw the same accusations towards the Alfa Giulietta?

IIRC - the car was only used by the Italian-based Romeo Ferraris following introduction in 2016, and it was not until 2019 that they sold cars to any other entrant.

Oh - and guess what they did in the first year - built the minimum 10 units and then set the price at the WSC Cap.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

IIRC - the car was only used by the Italian-based Romeo Ferraris following introduction in 2016, and it was not until 2019 that they sold cars to any other entrant.

They didn't do it and win 3 championships. And people own the cars that are completely independent from the original team.

The Governing body not standing up to a competitor not competing in the spirit of the competition because China is a major reason the WTCR is no more.

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Lynk and Co did not ever compete in the spirit of the rules like Honda, Hyundai, Audi etc all have.

I'm worried that the aero on the new Honda doesn't seem very advanced when compared to say the VW GTI Mk8 TCR prototype.

Take the rear bumper for example, it's just cut-off halfway down (much like a lot of club racing Civics, cutting the bumper to prevent parachuting is a cheap-and-easy way to reduce parachuting) with nothing particularly sophisticated there to control the rear tyre wake, in quite a big contrast to the VW's (or Audi's) elaborate fins and deep rear bumper.



Hopefully JAS Motorsport have done enough and have fixed the drag(?) problem of the old car! (Which rear tyre wake management could be part of...)

Yes, BOP is supposed to paritise the cars, but it doesn't help if you don't keep up with the development of other cars.

...Even though the front splitter and rear wing are spec parts in TCR, it seems there is quite a lot of scope to develop the sideskirts and wheel arch flares to quite a sophisticated level.

Of course you can't spend too much on making your car incredibly elaborate (ala Super Touring), as then you have to then sell them at the price cap -- which is an important rule!

[one five five]

Originally Posted by Mixer

The Governing body not standing up to a competitor not competing in the spirit of the competition because China is a major reason the WTCR is no more.

I’d say the major reason WTCR is no more is that Eurosport wanted out.

The TCR World Tour is the replacement and the same manufacturers seem committed even with Lynk still in there.

Your beef with Lynk and TCR in general is unfounded and quite baffling. The factory support in TCR is no different to GT3.

[FIRE]

Kody Garland with Peugeot of GRM confirmed.

[V8 Fireworks]

Hopefully with ARG confirming at least 3 hours free to air coverage for every round, there will be more entries!

I don't think the upfront or running costs in TCR are any higher than something like Carrera Cup, and the latter seems to find a strong grid. Granted Carrera Cup cars are faster and more exotic, which may be more attractive to amateur racers looking for something at a high level but more cost effective than full-blown GT3?

[FIRE]

Bailey Sweeny - HMO Customer Racing - Hyundai i30
Kody Garland - GRM - Peugeot 308
Aaron Cameron - GRM - Peugeot 308
Zac Soutar - Team Soutar - Audi RS 3 LMS

Source: touringcartimes.com

[Umai Naa]

Ben Bargwanna in a Busrons Peugeot.
Jordan Cox in a Schaeffler Peugeot.
Tony D'Alberto in a Wall Racing Honda.