Photo: David Noels Photography

FIA approves TCN2 regulations for national championships

By

The FIA has approved the technical regulations for TCN2, the new second tier category which is based on the platform used by the numerous TCR series, which the motorsport body plans to support within national and regional touring car championships.

The FIA has established two national tiers called TCN1 and TCN2 underneath its top level Super 2000 TC1 class (WTCC) regulations. TCN1 is based on the British Touring Car Championship regulations, developed by the championship’s promoter TOCA in 2010, while TCN2 is based on the concept used by WSC Ltd’s TCR championships, which are influenced by the new SEAT León Cup Racer.

“I am very pleased that we have been able to formalise the structure of the touring car categories below the FIA World Touring Car Championship,” FIA Touring Car Commission president Alan Gow.

“We have worked very hard to bring some order to touring car racing underneath the pinnacle of WTCC – and I believe that the introduction of these regulations has achieved that.”

“We now have a very clear set of regulations for national and international championships that we think can help strengthen the discipline around the world.”

The move paves the way for national championships to use cars which have already been developed or are already being developed for the various TCR championships across the world, once they meet the revised criteria published by the FIA, which include a racing fuel tank and roll cage changes from 2017, which are already being incorporated into cars being built by Honda, Opel and Peugeot and in the revised 2016 specification SEAT León TCR.

So far adoption of TCN2 as a named technical regulation has only been confirmed for the FIA’s European Touring Car Cup, which will integrate them with the TC2T and TC2 (2005-2013 WTCC Super 2000 normally aspirated and 1.6 turbocharged cars) for next year, while the BTCC will continue to use its own regulations for at least the next five years, the only championship using cars which are now classed as TCN1, formerly known as Next Generation Touring Cars (NGTC).