WSC, the onwer of the TCR concept, is planning to expand the all-electric ETCR category into national and regional series, following the successful launch of the global PURE ETCR series this year.
TCR has always bene about having a sustainable global touring car pyramid, with the technical regulations remaining consistent from national series all the way up to the top level.
WSC, headed up by Marcello Lotti, now plans to repeat with ETCR what it did with TCR, beginning back in 2015.
The first step will be to launch a regional European series, to be known as ETCR Europe, which will be promoted in cooperation between WSC and TCR Euro Series Ltd, which already runs the popular TCR Europe championship.
“Automotive is changing and motorsport follows,” said Paulo Ferreira, promoter of TCR Europe. “The trend is towards alternative energies and having seen how much interest was aroused by the Vallelunga event among the stakeholders, we aim to offer all customer teams the opportunity to be part of this new motorsport reality.
“The plan is to start in wintertime, between November 2022 and March 2023. Obviously, we cannot begin with seven events like TCR Europe, so the idea for the inaugural season is to have four events.
“We are also considering the idea of sharing the bill with TCR Europe’s last round of 2022 and the 2023 season-opener.
“One of the crucial points is the cost of the car that will be unveiled by the end of September. However, after talking to Marcello Lotti I know it will be surprisingly affordable.”
Lotti is pleased to be able to continue working with Ferreira, who has promoted the European TCR series since its expansion in 2018 to a full series of seven events.
“We are very pleased, because Paulo is a long-time member of the TCR family,” added Lotti. “It is also important to point out that, on top of this, we are already working to set up ETCR series in the Middle East and Africa, over the same wintertime period 2022/2023, covering the whole EMEA region.”
ETCR Director Maurício Slaviero added that expansion into Asia and America is also on the cards, but potentially with a slightly longer timescale.
“These plans fit perfectly into our strategy to build an ETCR pyramid,” said Slaviero, “with the PURE ETCR on top and the base formed by regional and national series.
“We are also in negotiations to bring ETCR to Asia and America. Actually, everything had been already fixed to start ETCR Asia in 2023, but the COVID-19 pandemic has now questioned this schedule.”