TCR series chief Marcello Lotti has met with TCR UK teams this week to discuss and finalise details of the upcoming championship.

The season kicks off at Silverstone over the Easter Weekend and an awards package has now been announced for the series.

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 (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.

Lotti also revealed that a number of European teams have expressed their interest in joining the series, which could see an additional four to six cars on the grid.

Addressing concerns about costs, a number of planned sessions have been cancelled, with Lotti revealing compensation in the form of start money.

A decision was also made to postpone the media day, which had been planned for 6 March, with Lotti citing a calendar clash with press day at the Geneva Motor Show, stopping a number of car brands from attending the UK launch.

This also will give teams extra time to confirm sponsorship deals and other details before the season kicks off.

While there will be no official launch day on 6 March, a test is still planned at Silverstone along with the TCR UK support series.

“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,” said Lotti.

“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.”