Audi Sport Customer Racing boss confirms interest in A3 TCR saloon

Audi Sport Customer Racing’s boss Chris Reineke confirmed an interest in a TCR project for the German manufacturer. In an interview with dailysportscar.com, the manager, who recently replaced Romolo Liebchen, spoke out a renewed interest in touring cars for the Ingolstadt manufacturer.

“In terms of a next project I would expect a TCR spec touring car to be the next new product to be signed off,” said Reineke. “One factor that attracted me to take on the Customer Racing brief was that I could see there was potential growth in this category. I’m pretty motivated to see what can be done to push that along.”

The model chosen to start the programme would be the Audi A3 in its saloon version, as his predecessor Liebchen had already stated as early as this February: “In terms of a next project I would expect a TCR spec touring car. TCR has good cost control, worldwide reach, something which is very important to us. That though needs some real thought and planning on distribution, promotion and, most importantly, product support. I expect a decision to move forward by the end of July.”

An Audi car has already appeared in the TCR International Series in the form of a TT with Team Engstler, as their historic sponsor Liqui Moly said their brand was bound for a German manufacturer. TouringCarTimes understands there will be no synergy between the new Audi Sport Customer Racing project and fellow VAG models, the SEAT León TCR and the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.