A new season of the British Touring Car Championship got under way last weekend at Donington Park, with a bumper grid and an eclectic mix of machinery featuring hybrid technology for the first time. But it was not the only touring car championship that kicked into life in April, with a healthy grid and several different manufacturers’ models represented.
PLUS: How the BTCC's new hybrid era aced its first test
Just a week earlier, 25 cars lined up for the opening round of the TCR UK Championship at Oulton Park for what, to many, also felt like the start of a new era.
“This day has been a long time coming,” said Stewart Lines, whose Maximum Motorsport company has been running TCR UK since 2019, just one year after the concept was launched in the UK.
The championship has come a long way since its creation, with interest in the low-cost formula having built up since 2015 when the TCR International Series was founded. Seven domestic championships were created the following season and it didn’t take long for anticipation to build in the UK, with a number of teams initially keen to join the new tin-top contest.
Interest was so high and grids so packed elsewhere around the globe that it led some to suggest that TCR UK could even become a direct rival to the BTCC – something that the latter series’ boss Alan Gow always downplayed.
On paper, though, it looked like the success of the new championship would be a no-brainer – a more affordable package for touring car aspirants in front-wheel-drive machinery based on production saloons and featuring 1.75 to two-litre turbocharged engines.
BTCC race winner Dan Lloyd became the inaugural champion in 2018, and three-time BTCC title holder Ash Sutton also competed in one round. But, while the calibre of the grid might have been impressive, entries throughout the year remained low and inconsistent – 13 the highest for the opening Silverstone round and a low of just eight at Croft – while only five drivers entered every round.
It led to TCR creator World Sporting Consulting appointing Lines’s Maximum concern as promoter of the championship. Lines had already created the Touring Car Trophy – a category that allowed older-spec British Touring Cars (NGTC or S2000) – and TCR UK became a class within this.
Only 12 TCR UK registered entries took part in that initial season, and eventual champion Lewis Kent was the sole driver to contest every round. Things went from bad to worse the following season, with just nine drivers competing in the category at any point of the year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It led to Lines having “a few sleepless nights” and questions with his wife Nicki about whether the concept was going to work.
"TCR is a global championship. BTCC is what it is, but you can take this car and race anywhere in the world. It opens up a door for more opportunities" Chris Smiley
“Over the last two years, people bought cars and we just slowly but surely pointed it in the right direction, but it hasn’t been easy,” said Lines. “It’s been a hard slog, we’ve had a lot of obstacles in the way with COVID-19, and not saying BTCC are a fan of ours but they’re not.
“They didn’t want us to get to this stage, but there’s no stopping it now. It’s giving people an opportunity to race in a touring car who will never be able to go to BTCC, that’s what it’s about really.”
A much-needed increase in numbers last season coincided with a radical approach of leaving traditional national racing events and instead switching to a calendar mainly consisting of hugely popular Time Attack fixtures.
The series then blossomed for this year’s opening round, where in support of British GT and with its races livestreamed, TCR UK has arguably cemented its position in the national motorsport landscape. Perhaps the biggest endorsement was from the fans, with nearly every car obscured in the paddock as onlookers crowded around to catch a glimpse of some impressive bits of kit.
Despite the growing appeal of the championship, Lines has dismissed any suggestion that his series is a direct rival to the BTCC, but says that TCR UK could be an alternative for drivers. This point was in evidence at the opening round, as BTCC race winner Chris Smiley took victory, while fellow ex-BTCC driver Jessica Hawkins also won on her debut in the category in the partially reversed grid race.
“TCR is a global championship,” said Smiley. “BTCC is what it is, but you can take this car and race anywhere in the world. It opens up a door for more opportunities.”
Lines believes this new-found success stems from the current financial climate, with a budget for TCR UK capped at £100,000 making it a viable option for many drivers wishing to race competitive tin-top machinery. In this writer’s opinion, there’s certainly no reason why the BTCC and TCR UK can’t co-exist and, based on the numbers for the latter, it appears as though it’s turned a corner.
As Smiley added: “Any national championship with 25/26 cars is doing something right.”
