End of premier-class V8 racing?
February wasn’t a good month for Australasian motorsport. An announcement from MotorSport NZ cut across Holden’s demise and heralded the end of premier level V8 racing on our shores.
The March round of the BNT V8s will be the last with the as-yet unproven TCR category stepping into that void, writes Mark Baker. The TCR cars are current-model hatchbacks – the VW Golf GTi, Seat Cupra, Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla – with significant, but tightly controlled, performance enhancements.
They are a global formula and vehicles of choice for the World Touring Car Championship. Holden has no four-cylinder offering except if competitors rebadge an Opel.
Elton Goonan, MSNZ’s competition manager, says the governing body believes TCR better reflects what local-vehicle distributors are selling, which increases the potential for support from them and the wider corporate world.
“Confirming TCR NZ will compete for the NZ Touring Car Championship title is a big piece of the puzzle complete for us,” says Goonan. “It adds another incentive for teams and drivers to join what is a huge success worldwide and gives drivers a recognised platform to compete on.”
MSNZ’s decision effectively consigns current V8 Holdens, Fords, Nissans and Toyotas to club-level racing. Sources at the category say they were kept in the dark on the change, as were teams contesting this year’s championship.
In response, NZV8s category sponsor BNT says it will go ahead with its “Gen III” initiative and dropped strong hints about developing links with the Australian TA2 category for spaceframe-chassis and fibreglass-bodied cars.
BNT’s management has expressed strong disappointment at MSNZ’s pre-emptive announcement. The crowd-pleasing TA2 recently split away from TCR promoter ARG in Australia, meaning the prospect of inter-category warfare as the 2021 summer rolls in.
