TCR World Tour gets biggest grid yet in Uruguay, but loses two full-timers

After a two-month break, the TCR World Tour returns this weekend for its fifth event and its first ever in South America.

The El Pinar circuit in Uruguay has been a staple of TCR South America since its creation in 2021, and it will be the series that the World Tour runners now join after going up against TCR Europe’s field three times already.

It’s the first time an intercontinental touring car series has gone to South America since the World Touring Car Championship went to Argentina’s Rio Hondo track in 2017 (having been there annually since 2013), and before that it raced at Curitiba in Brazil from 2006 to 2012.

With races in Argentina next weekend, it will be the first ever time two rounds are run on the continent on the same season.

None of the point-scoring entries from the European championship have made the trip to the Southern Hemisphere to keep their World Tour points tally going, with Tom Coronel the highest placed of those in tenth in the standings, and it is the nine drivers ahead of him in the points table who make up the overseas entries.

Absent from this weekend’s action, having done every World Tour round up to this point along with the top nine in the standings, are Coronel’s Comtoyou Racing team-mates Kobe Pauwels and the race-winning John Filippi.

The contingent of TCR World Tour full-timers is led by Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher, who assumed the points lead in the last round at the Hungaroring. He overtook BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz, who is now 16 points behind, with his team-mate Mikel Azcona third in the standings.

Ehrlacher has Thed Björk, Ma Qing Hua and Santiago Urrutia alongside him in the Cyan Racing garage, while Comtoyou is represented by Rob Huff and Frédéric Vervisch.

Having contested the first four rounds with ALM Motorsport, Néstor Girolami has switched to the Squadra Martino Racing team from his home country Argentina to ensure his continued presence on the grid for this leg of the season. Unsurprisingly, with a far smaller distance to travel, it is the TCR South America teams fielding larger line-ups.

Squadra Martino has five drivers in a fleet of Hondas, Paladini Racing has three cars, interestingly running two Toyotas and one Audi, PMO Motorsport has a pair of Lynk & Cos while PMO Racing is running two Peugeots, Cobra Racing Team has two Toyotas as does Toyota Gazoo Racing’s official Argentinian team, Alfa Racing has kept to its name with two Alfa Romeo and W2 Pro GP is fielding a pair of Cupras.

Going into the weekend with just one car each is Scuderia Chiarelli, who are running Pedro Cardoso in a Hyundai, and Bratton Tito Bessone Team has signed Esteban Guerrieri for the event.

Guerrieri, a winner in the WTCC and World Touring Car Cup, has raced in the World Endurance Championship this year and will be making his touring car return.

He will be tipped to take the challenge to the usual World Tour front-runners, as will Girolami’s team-mate Ignacio Montenegro who leads the TCR South America standings with four wins from eight races.

W2 Pro GP’s Raphael Reis is his closest rival in the standings, having won the first endurance race of the season, whilst TGR Argentina’s Bernardo Lllaver is the only other driver to have scored 200 points so far. The top local is Juan Manuel Casella, who is yet another of Squadra Martino’s drivers.

Reigning champion Fabricio Pezzini is currently only ninth in the standings in Paladini’s Audi, with little more than a third of the points that Montenegro has. He is matched on points with team-mate Juan Ángel Rosso, who was his title rival last year.

In total there are 30 entries for this weekend, down on the 35 that had been expected during the summer break but still by far the biggest World Tour entry list yet, and the track action will get underway with a half-hour practice session on Friday evening.

Saturday features the second practice at the end of the morning, then qualifying runs from 16:10 to 17:15 local time and will be in three segments. Race 1 is on Sunday morning at 09:10, and its distance will be set by time – with half an hour of action – rather than laps. Race 2 follows, with a longer 35-minute format, at 12:55.