The calendar for the 2024 TCR Europe season has been unveiled, featuring six events between April and September, with only Spa-Francorchamps remaining on the calendar from the current season.
Amongst the significant changes is the reduction in the number of events, from seven to six, for the first time since the COVID-impacted 2020 season.
The move will reduce the costs of competing in the series – in 2023 the series featured only six full-time entrants in its smallest field to-date – as well as allow competitors to easier find the time to compete in other TCR series.
Promoter Paolo Ferreira explained the decision to reduce the number of events on the calendar.
“We decided to reduce the schedule from seven to six events and compact them over five months for two main reasons,” said Ferreira.
“The first one is to reduce the running costs and the second is to allow our competitors to make occasional appearances in other TCR events, such as the TCR World Ranking Final in Portimão or the FIA Motor Sport Games in Valencia.”
The season gets underway in Vallelunga in mid-April, before returning to Zolder for the first time since 2020 in mid-May.
The Salzburgring will host the third round of the season at the end of May and start of June, marking the first international touring car event for the Austrian circuit since 2017, when the TCR International Series visited.
Spa-Francorchamps will stage the fourth event at the start of July, with the second visit to Belgium for the series being at the only circuit to remain on the calendar from the 2023 season.
A two-month summer break will follow, before the season concludes with events in the Czech Republic at Brno in early September and in Spain at Valencia at the end of the same month.
It marks a change from the traditional final events in TCR Europe – since the series became a full championship in 2018 the final two events have always been at Monza and Barcelona, with the exception of 2020 when they were still on the calendar but earlier in the season.
The season finale at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo is expected to attract additional entrants as it takes place at the same circuit as the FIA Motorsport Games, which will follow four weeks later.
The format for the racing weekends will remain the same as in previous seasons. A new Gen-1 Trophy for older-specification TCR cars will also be introduced.
2024 TCR Europe calendar
19/21 April – Autodromo Vallelunga Piero Taruffi
17/19 May – Circuit Zolder
31 May/2 June – Salzburgring
4/6 July – Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
6/9 September – Automotodrom Brno
27/29 September – Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia