Honda Team Principal on the TC2000 series appeal

TouringCarTimes spoke to Honda Racing Director General Victor Rosso last week about the team’s plans to move into the WTCC next season (see here), and also about the TC2000 series in general.

Honda Racing has been competing in Argentina’s TC2000 championship since 1997, and has won the championship for the last two years with their driver José María Lopéz.

We first asked Victor Rosso about the current technical regulations in TC2000, and how he sees the future of the series:
“(I’d like to seem them) go in a similar way that they are going with the new regulations in the WTCC – but of course, people in motorsport like the noise here – when they go to see a race, they like overtaking, and they
like cars that make a lot of noise”.

Victor explained that the new regulations in the WTCC will benefit the financial predicament of the teams, but will detract from the larger sound and spectacle of racing which is popular in the country.

“The most popular category in Argentina is the TC, that’s the old TC – old cars & a beautiful noise…I’d like to go in the direction of the WTCC but I think it would be difficult as those kinds of regulations will not be generally favoured by the people.”

A Turismo Carretera car (TC) (ACTC.org.ar)

In TC2000, the cars have been developed to give the manufacturers a low cost platform to build on, with spec parts keeping the cost down.

“The cars look like DTM a little bit, but with the logical cost of touring cars” explained Victor.

“What we tried to do is to make a competitive category with a good looking car, with a noisy car and with regulations that allow all the manufacturers to be involved.”

“All the suspension is similar, we have the same engine, the same gearbox, the same shock absorbers – so they only part we change is the shell”.

“It is still the original shell, so the people will forget that the car is similar underneath”

“If you have a plastic body shell, then it’s a silhouette car – but when you have a proper shell, we found that the people like that.”

Rosso went on to explain his interest in aligning the regulations:
“TC2000 regulations are therefore very good, of course I’ll like to have parity with the WTCC, which will be good for our step up”.

Three of the Honda Racing Civic’s at General Roca (TC2000)

One of the other interesting aspects of TC2000 is it’s radical qualifying system – a normal three part qualifying session takes place on the Saturday to determine the grid for Sunday’s sprint race, but with an added twist…

“We changed the regulations about three years ago – the first twelve drivers in the championship go back. The person leading the championship goes back twelve places, if you are twelth in the championship, you go back one place.”

“We did that because the races were too boring – so we tried to make them better”

“The situation before was that we put kilos in the car, but the car was still not so easy to overtake, so the races were still boring – so we made it that the quicker car has to start from the back, and the quicker driver has to overtake – and you can see a lot of overtaking in the races, which is what the people like.”

Rosso then explains why he hates it, but also wants to keep it:

“Not many people like the regulations, even myself, but
when we have to vote to continue or to take it away – we always vote to continue because it’s the only way to make the races nice to the spectators.”

With his tongue in his cheek, Victor jokes;
“Nobody likes it – I’d want Pechito to have 21 or 22 pole positions, but as you can imagine Pechito will win the races – so it wouldn’t be so good for the championship.”

“He’s still coming from the back overtaking, so that’s good for the sport.”

The next round of the championship gets under way in Córdoba on 30th May.