Soutar hopeful of bright TCR future
Whilst 2025 will be a quiet year for TCR Australia, regular racer Zac Soutar hopes some short-term pain can net long-term gains for the category.
In 2025, TCR Australia will stage just one round on home soil at The Bend in September’s Supercars enduro before following the World Tour to the famous streets of Macau.
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The two-round season comes after ambitions of hosting up to five rounds, including three on the Supercars program.
However, only The Bend 500 will come to fruition as a reset takes place to bring the category, which arrived on these shores in 2019, back to the forefront.
One of the established stars is Soutar, who wishes more was possible in 2025, but hopes it can help set things up for the future.
“It is obviously disappointing to not get a full season of TCR racing in this year and it is the best call in the difficult scenario we are in,” Soutar, who will continue his two-car team told Auto Action.
“This is the best way forward because we will have two massive marque events with international drivers and big grids.
“There will be some great racing and hopefully that will put TCR back in the spotlight and hopefully we can attract some people from there.
“I don’t quite understand why we are not seeing so much interest around TCR.
“I have been lucky enough to race in quite a few categories and honestly TCR is some of the best racing I have been involved in.
“Everyone comments about the racing and the cars, relatively speaking to something similar are relatively affordable.
“It is hardcore, door to door racing and it is a shame it is not strong here like it is around the world.
“Calendar changes do not help, so it is disappointing, but I am really looking forward to the two World Tour rounds at The Bend and Macau.”
Originally, TCR Australia was set to start its season with a trip across the ditch to Taupo before heading 5,413km west to Wanneroo.
Soutar admitted that opening with those first two rounds was a test for the budgets.
“This year’s calendar the previous promoters did their best to put TCR in front of the right audience,” he said.
“They probably expected to get at least 4-5 Supercars rounds and there was talk of some marque events which had everyone excited, but as to be expected as a new category to the Supercars platform we did not get the rounds we might have wanted.
“Whilst it was disappointing to see Perth and New Zealand cancelled, the cost for those rounds would have been astronomical.
“For someone like myself who has been in the series for a long time, just to transport in the series would be a tough ask.
“For anybody looking to get into the series, that extra money to make it happen would have made it really tough.
“As much as it was a great opportunity, I don’t think they were the right locations at the end of the day.”
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