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TCR Australia targeting 30-car grids in 2020

TCR Australia is targeting 30-car grids by the beginning of its second season.

Dylan O’Keeffe, Ashley Seward Motorsport Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Dylan O’Keeffe, Ashley Seward Motorsport Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Daniel Kalisz

The new-for-2019 series kicked off in Sydney last weekend with a 17-car field, just one shy of the ambitious target promoter Australian Racing Group set itself for round one.

According to ARG non-executive director James Warburton – who was Supercars CEO until the end of 2017 – work will now begin on expanding the field throughout the remainder of the current season.

Despite the series having announced a 20-car limit for its inaugural season, Warburton says there are now plans to have numbers in the mid-20s by the end of 2019, before a push for a 30-car grid for 2020.

"I think the absolute focus of the championship is, TCR works on grid density," said Warburton.

"So we worked really hard to get the 18 cars we wanted [for the opener], and we got 17. The focus is to get into the 20s and end the year in the mid-to-late 20s.

"Then the ambition is to have 30 cars on the grid by 2020. That's where we think things will really start to roll.

"Lots of competitors spoke to us [over the Sydney weekend], there's lots of people watching, lots of promoters watching."

One team keen to expand its current TCR programme is Wall Racing, which is fielding two factory-backed Hondas for Tony D'Alberto and John Martin, but has plans to add more Civics in the "near future".

“It is very likely that we will expand beyond our two current cars,” said team owner David Wall.

“The maximum number of cars you can run per marque is five, and there’s no reason we couldn’t run three, potentially four in the near future.

“The interest increased when Tony put the car on pole [in Sydney] and we had the second and third fastest laps [in Race 1] in race trim.

“The product is obviously good enough and they sell themselves.

“The series is new, but there has been an increase in people wanting to be involved in some way shape or form. Hopefully we can grow our team in the near future.”

The 2019 TCR Australia series continues at Phillip Island in just over a fortnight.

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