Zac Soutar will contest his fifth consecutive season in TCR Australia in 2025, committing to returning in his self-run Audi RS3 LMS TCR.
Soutar, 27, made his début in the 2021 season when he joined the grid in a Honda Civic Type-R.
In a competitive championship he scored a brace of top ten results, before going even better in his sophomore season, winning his first race at Symmons Plains and visiting the podium a further three times on his way to sixth overall in the drivers’ standings.
A difficult season in 2023, due to driveshaft troubles early in the year, meant Soutar could only manage tenth overall that year.
But last year he came back strong, despite reduced grid sizes, and was an outright championship contender, eventually finishing as runner-up to Josh Buchan in a year when he claimed three wins and eight podiums.
The team ran two Audis last year, with Indonesian racer Glenn Nirwan joining the field, and the team is currently looking for another driver to partner Soutar.
“I’m really excited to be coming back to TCR Australia in the Tufflift Racing Audi in 2025,” said Soutar.
“We’ve had an amazing experience in the series so far; we love the racing, the cars and I’m grateful that we’ve been able to put together another opportunity to come back and go again.
“We came up short last year, despite having such a great season and leading for a long time in the series, but unfortunately, we didn’t quite get there in the end.
“We’re looking to go one better in 2025, so we’ll be giving it everything to try and make that happen.
“It’s a compact calendar, but it’s a pretty cool one at that. The first two circuits are in a rural setting in One Raceway and Winton, which is going to be fantastic. Those two circuits don’t often get big events, so to bring TCR to those tracks in front of what will hopefully be a large rural audience is fantastic.
“Then two unprecedented, huge events I’m really looking forward to in The Bend and Macau. Reflecting back to 2023 to the Sydney Motorsport Park and Bathurst TCR World Tour events, they were two of the fondest memories I have in motorsport.
“Those two events were so cool and to take up against drivers I’ve watched on TV in previous TCR World Tour or the World Touring Car Championship races for years was amazing.
“I’m excited for The Bend as the 500 weekend will be incredible and Macau will be one of those bucket list tracks I’ve always wanted to race at. The fact TCR Australia has given me an opportunity to do that is really exciting.
“At the end of 2019 we’d sold our Formula Ford, but didn’t know what to do next. We couldn’t afford to lease or run with a team in anything and that’s why we ran Formula Ford by ourselves, so it was a case of potentially stopping racing at that point.
“TCR at the time was getting bigger, plus the cars were reasonably priced to get into and racing against some of the best drivers in the country made it a great reason to have a crack, which is what we did.
“It was a challenge for a small family team at first, but obviously we built up to a point where we won races, took pole positions and challenged for the title.
“TCR built me from a guy that may have stopped racing in 2019 to fast forward five years and I’m running a team preparing cars for clients alongside my own program. Plus, I’ve got some incredible sponsors involved and none of this would have been possible without TCR.
“I owe TCR Australia a lot and I want to see it back to where it was when I first started. The cars are fun to drive and they race better than anything else out there.
“The plan is to run two cars this year, like we did in 2024 with Glenn Nirwan. Glenn’s moved to some other programs and we still have his Audi RS3 LMS TCR sitting here ready to go. It won two Kumho FIA TCR World Tour races with Will Brown at the wheel in Sydney and it’s a super capable car in the latest specification featuring all the upgrades.
“We’d love to put someone in the second Audi for the full-season and we’re definitely on the hunt to put someone in the car.
“There’s not many other categories that come to Australia where you can put yourself up against professional, factory drivers from Europe.
“For the drivers wanting to really test themselves against the world’s best and help us Aussies prove we’re as good as anybody, we’ve got a brilliant car ready to go for someone willing to take up the opportunity.”