TCR World Tour: 2023-Present
With the demise of WTCR at the end of 2022, the TCR World Tour was introduced to fill its position as the top level international touring car series. The most obvious change for this new championship was the format of the calendar. Rather than holding standalone events, each round would see the TCR World Tour join up with an existing national or regional TCR series.
This gave drivers in these championships the opportunity to test themselves against the best TCR drivers in the world, and helped give the TCR World Tour quite an exciting inaugural calendar; visits to Spa, Bathurst and Macau being the main highlights.
While only nine drivers contested the full World Tour schedule, all drivers in each round were eligible for points. The World Tour drivers weren’t eligible for points in the national or regional championships, however. The combined fields meant there were generally quite large grids, and several of the local drivers managed to take on and beat the World Tour regulars.
As well as the World Tour, a companion event called the TCR World Ranking Final was introduced at the same time. This was a single weekend event scheduled for early 2024, in which the best TCR drivers from the previous season would face off to crown that year’s top driver. The top 15 drivers in the TCR World Tour standings at the end of the season earned an invite to the World Ranking Final, which helped provide some additional incentive for drivers to get involved in the World Tour.