Honda Civic Type R TCR wins TCR ‘Model of the Year’ prize for third time
The Honda Civic Type R TCR has been crowned TCR Model of the Year for 2024 following an ultra-successful season of worldwide competition that has featured numerous key milestones
The Honda Civic Type R TCR has been crowned TCR Model of the Year for 2024 following an ultra-successful season of worldwide competition that has featured numerous key milestones.
The Model of the Year title is awarded by TCR creator WSC Group to the most successful car competing globally, with results in every single TCR-affiliated series counting for points across a 12-month period.
With 23 major championships won in 2024 – the most the car has taken in a single season – plus 72 race victories, the Civic Type R TCR, based on the Civic Type R production vehicle and built at JAS Motorsport’s Arluno facility in Milan, Italy, achieved incredible success.
Additionally, the car scored its 100th major title success and its 500th global race win across the year; those achievements coming primarily via the latest FL5 Civic – introduced in 2023. The Type R TCR also claimed the 2019 and ’20 Model of the Year awards.
JAS Motorsport Development Driver Ignacio Montenegro was the year’s first champion as he clinched the TCR Spain Winter Series’ overall and Junior crowns in February.
The Argentinian youngster would go on to take six titles across 2024; adding the TCR Spain main series overall and Junior championships, TCR Europe’s Rookie Trophy and, most significantly, the Touring Car gold medal at the FIA Motorsport Games at Valencia.
He achieved all these successes with the Estonian outfit ALM Motorsport, who scored an incredible 10 major crowns this year including the Teams’ titles in TCR Italy, TCR Europe and TCR Spain. Montenegro’s FIA Motorsport Games success was in a Civic run in partnership between ALM and RC2 Racing.
It was Mascot Motorsport with Racegroup who had the honour of scooping the car’s 100th title; doing so with the TCR Denmark Teams’ Championship.
Racegroup had a stunning season as lead driver Kasper H Jensen won an incredible fifth Danish title in a row while team-mate Gustav Birch scooped a second-straight Under-25s crown and Honda won the Manufacturers’ prize.
It was Jensen and Montenegro who topped the 2024 winners’ list with nine victories each while Jensen’s chief title rival Mike Halder won seven times in a variety of series to move onto 33 career wins with the Civic – also an all-time record.
ALM’s 17 wins; from Montenegro, fellow JAS Development Driver Levente Losonczy, Paolo Rocca and TCR Italy Under-25s Champion Ruben Volt made them the top-performing team.
Racegroup and TPR were next up with 11 and eight respectively while Wall Racing tasted victory five times in TCR Australia with Tony D’Alberto (Honda Wall Racing) and Brad Harris (Exclusive Switchboards).
Esteban Guerrieri, Dusan Borkovic and new-for-2024 team GOAT Racing claimed Kumho FIA TCR World Tour wins at Interlagos and the Macau Guia Race while M&K Racing made it back-to-back successes in the ST-TCR division of Japan’s Super Taikyu endurance series.
A new relationship with Montreal Motorsport Group resulted in a season-high five TCR pole positions and a maiden team victory in the IMSA Michelin Pliot Challenge while MacPro Racing Team’s Martin Xie was TCR China’s King of qualifying with four poles and four wins.
The Honda Civic Type R TCR debuted in April 2015 and has, in total, claimed 113 major titles and 534 race victories with more set to follow next year.
Mads Fischer, JAS Motorsport Chief Operating Officer, said: “It is a huge honour to see the Honda Civic Type R TCR named as the TCR Model of the Year for a third time and even more so in a season where the car has exceeded 500 race wins and 100 major championship titles. We are extremely proud to be a technical partner of Honda for over 25 years and to have achieved this success for them. This award is both a testament to the determination and professionalism of our customer TCR teams across the world and a recognition of both the quality of the Honda Civic Type R production model and of the technical and sales support we offer to our customers. There is an incredibly hard-working group of people at our Arluno headquarters comprising mechanics, engineers, logistic, sales and support staff, and this shines a light on the fantastic job they have done on the Civic Type R TCR project.”
Koji Watanabe, President, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), said: “I am very delighted with the news that the Civic Type R TCR has won the TCR Model of the year award. This is not achieved by Honda or HRC alone; it would not have been possible without the people at JAS Motorsport and all the Civic Type R TCR entrants and drivers around the world. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to WSC President Mr Marcello Lotti. HRC stands with Civic users and motorsports fans across the world."
Marcello Lotti, WSC President, said: “Many congratulations to Honda, JAS Motorsport and their customer teams. Once again, competition in all the TCR series around the world has been exciting throughout the year. Several title fights went down to the wire and were decided by the smallest gaps, which made the battle for the Model of the Year uncertain until the very last races. Honda and JAS Motorsport are founding members of the TCR community and since the category was launched back in 2015 have built such a professional and efficient customer service that has produced a long string of successes through three different models of Civic: FK2, FK7 and the current FL5.”
Major titles won by the Honda Civic Type R TCR in 2024
TCR Spain Winter Series (Teams) – ALM Motorsport
TCR Spain Winter Series (Drivers) – Ignacio Montenegro (ALM Motorsport)
TCR Spain Winter Series (Junior) – Ignacio Montenegro (ALM Motorsport)
TCR Denmark (Trophy) – Rene Povlsen (TPR Motorsport)
TCR Europe (Rookie) – Ignacio Montenegro (ALM Motorsport)
TCR Denmark (Constructors) – Honda
TCR Europe (Teams) – ALM Motorsport
TCR Europe (Diamond) – Felipe Fernandez (GOAT Racing)
TCR Denmark (Drivers) – Kasper H Jensen (Mascot Motorsport with Racegroup)
TCR Denmark (Teams) – Mascot Motorsport with Racegroup
TCR Denmark (Under 25s) – Gustav Birch (Mascot Motorsport with Racegroup)
TCR Brasil (Trophy) – Enrique Maglione (Squadra Martino)
TCR Italy (Teams) – ALM Motorsport
TCR Italy (Under-25s) – Ruben Volt (ALM Motorsport)
FIA Motorsport Games (Touring Car) – Ignacio Montenegro (ALM/RC2 Racing)
TCR Chinese Taipei (Class B) – Yu Wizhan (Liming Racing)
TCR Chinese Taipei (Drivers) – Gao Zilong (Liming Racing)
TCR Chinese Taipei (Teams) – Liming Racing
TCR Australia (Challenge) – Brad Harris (Exclusive Switchboards [Wall Racing])
Super Taikyu (ST-TCR) – M&K Racing
TCR Spain (Drivers) – Ignacio Montenegro (ALM Motorsport)
TCR Spain (Junior) – Ignacio Montenegro (ALM Motorsport)
TCR South America (Trophy) – Enrique Maglione (Squadra Martino)
