Supercars was rightly ecstatic at the news Toyota is joining its travelling show from 2026 and beyond. Another manufacturer on the grid is great, but Toyota will also bring with it money for ‘activations’ and promotional efforts around the sport, helping to boost its profile.
The problem is, there aren’t too many potential candidates that have a suitable car to compete against the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and Toyota Supra.
But what if I told you there was a way to get big name brands like Hyundai, Honda, MG and more involved in the Supercars events? There is and it’s called the TCR Australia championship and it’s currently in search of a new home to establish itself.
READ MORE: How Supercars can help Toyota
The Australian motor racing community doesn’t have a great history of working together for a common good, look no further than the all-out war between V8 Supercars and Super Touring in the mid-to-late 1990s. That didn’t need to be a fight at all, each side could have supported each other and created two very different but equally compelling products.
That is the situation the sport (in the broader sense) faces at the moment – to keep fighting each other until one (namely, TCR) falls over and Australian racing fans, teams and drivers lose what has the potential to be a very good category.
Make no mistake, I think TCR has boomed globally, the former FIA World Touring Car Cup folded and the replacement World Tour hasn’t achieved the same highs. But that doesn’t mean TCR as a category needs to disappear anytime soon.
If Supercars welcomed the TCR Australia category into its fold, gave them status as a top undercard event, it would have the potential to be a major win-win. It would bring the car brands into the Supercars paddock that otherwise stand no chance of joining the main game, and that will mean more investment and promotion for the sport as a whole.
Just look at the investment Hyundai has made with TCR Australia, it has been invested since the beginning, first with Will Brown and then supporting Josh Buchan to back-to-back titles and using it as a key sales and promotional tool for its fledgling line of ‘N’ performance cars.
READ MORE: How Hyundai has won over a legion of fans
Honda supported Tony D’Alberto’s TCR campaigns and Renault was active early on, showing that if you give car companies the opportunity to be involved with motor racing at an affordable level, and with a compelling package, they will jump at it.
This is only the top of the iceberg too, Chinese brands like MG and Lynk & Co will be looking for ways to embed themselves in the Australia car culture, and what better way to do that than by winning at iconic racetracks like Mt Panorama and Adelaide’s city streets in front of big Supercars crowds.
The benefit for Supercars is simple, these brands will bring money and fans. Again, look no further than Hyundai for evidence of this. The company conducts regular owner driver events at every TCR round, literally helping to navigate hundreds of fans to each race.
Then there’s the potential for these brands to run ‘activations’ promotion stands and other marketing programs at Supercars events. Heck, Supercars events could become the modern answer to the motor show, bringing half a dozen brands (or more) to each event to show off new models trackside, demonstrate them and even give test drives.
The concept of the motor show has fallen by the wayside in recent years, despite attempts to revive them centred around electric cars. But events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed show what’s possible when you think outside the square. Goodwood is able to provide a platform for car brands to show off what they have to an enthusiastic audience and in a more exciting way than just a static display in a convention centre.
Imagine the potential for both Toyota to come to a Supercars event and have racing entries in Supercars, TCR and the GR86 Series, with a trackside ‘showroom’ for its Gazoo Racing products, as well as the likes of the HiLux, Tundra and LandCruiser.
There’s so much potential if both sides come to the table with an open mind and an appreciation for what they could build together.
What do you think – should Supercars and TCR unite and create a ‘travelling motor show’ to attract more manufacturers? Or is Supercars better on its own?
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