TCR UK will be a success!” declares Lotti
The WSC boss met the British teams at Luton Hoo

Marcello Lotti, the CEO of WSC Ltd, met TCR UK teams at Luton Hoo this week to discuss and finalise several aspects of the championship ahead of the opening round at Silverstone over the Easter weekend. Lotti informed the well-attended meeting of a number of developments within TCR and declared: “TCR UK will be a success in exactly the same way as we are seeing in series such as TCR Germany.”
It was announced that a number of prizes will be awarded at the end of the season. Both the winning driver and the winning team will receive free entries into the 2019 TCR UK championship, with a separate DSG Trophy being contested by the Volkswagen Group cars that are fitted with DSG transmission (the Audi RS 3 LMS, Cupra TCR and Volkswagen Golf GTI). The winner of the DSG Trophy will receive a free upgrade to sequential transmission – a prize worth around €20,000 at today’s prices.
It was also revealed that a number of enquires have been received from teams based on the continent, with between four and six cars from European teams likely to be on the grid.
Among the topics discussed by the teams were concerns about costs and a reduction in testing. It was decided that several planned sessions would be cancelled in order to reduce costs. Lotti then informed the teams that, because of the reduction in the number of test sessions, they would receive start money to further ease pressure on their budgets.
Another decision taken at the meeting was to postpone the Media Day planned for March 6th. Lotti suggested the postponement because the event clashes with Press Day at the Geneva Motor Show and so a number of brands would be unable to attend the UK launch. A number of teams then expressed a wish that the Media Day be postponed as they were still finalising cars, drivers or sponsors and so would welcome the extra time this would allow. The event at Silverstone on March 6th will still go ahead, but it will now be a test day for TCR UK and its support series.
Marcello Lotti commented: “The UK, Italy and Germany are the three countries with the strongest Touring Car DNA and so I am confident that TCR UK will become the latest TCR success story. I enjoyed meeting the teams and discussing with them how they would like to proceed with certain aspects of the championship; the debate over testing was a great example of how we can work together with the teams to reduce their budgets.”

TCR Middle East
Luca Engstler was crowned champion in Bahrain

At the age of 17, Luca Engstler has become the youngest driver ever to claim a title in any TCR series. The German teenager had made a stunning debut in the category last year, winning the opening race of the TCR Middle East Series at Dubai and later in the season was awarded with the TCR Germany’s Rookie Trophy.
The start for his second year was even more impressive: another victory at Dubai in the 24-hour race counting towards the 24H TCE Series and then three wins out of five races in the TCR Middle East.
Engstler was determined to settle the matter in the season's finale at Bahrain International Circuit and started by claiming pole position on Friday. The day after – in a very unusual rainy evening for the region – he won Race 1 in an authoritative way. The title was his and nobody paid attention to the cancellation of the second race because of the weather conditions. Despite the 30 kilos of maximum Success Ballast on board of his Volkswagen Golf GTI, Engstler seemed to flly on the wet track, improving his times and leading gap consistently, lap after lap.
“It was the perfect evening for me! I am really happy of this success and the TCR Middle East title! The car felt perfectly, although track conditions were really tricky. This is certainly not the kind of weather you expect to find in Bahrain, so the whole experience feels a little bit crazy... but I was not afraid of the wet track, as it actually fits the Golf quite well. I had a good start and then really enjoyed the driving,” said the new champion.
Giacomo Altoè, the winner of the season’s opening race at Abu Dhabi, was not even in the position to challenge his competitor, but pocketed a third place that was worth the second position in the Drivers’ standings ahead of Engstler’s teammate Florian Thoma who was classfied second in the last race.
The icing on the cake for the Liqui Moly Team Engstler was the Teams’ title, grasped with a comfortable advantage of 53 points.