TCR Australia restart cancelled

The planned restart of TCR Australia for 2026 has been cancelled ahead of this weekend’s planned season opener at The Bend.

“Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, TCR Australia will not be taking place in 2026,” said category manager Charlotte White to Speedcafe.

“We’ve not had enough uptake from competitors in order to make it viable this season. We are working with WSC and Motorsport Australia to look at different options to give the cars a place to race whilst maintaining homologation.”

The series has struggled during the past couple of years, with the 2025 season reduced to just two rounds together with the FIA TCR World Tour which attracted few entries.

It was then announced for 2026 that the owners of The Bend and Mallala Motorsport Park would host a five-race TCR Australia calendar in an agreement between WSC, the TCR rights holders.

The 2026 season was supposed to start this weekend at The Bend, but had just attracted two entries.

“It is a shame, TCR, but in Australia it’s been said many a time: we keep bringing categories here but our population, we’re just not big enough for the amount of categories that are here,” said Barry Rogers, head of Garry Rogers Motorsport, which last year launched the next generation Peugeot 308 TCR P51, to V8 Sleuth.

“The fact is, I think it is pretty well proven now that if it hasn’t got a V8 in it, it really struggles in Australia.”