2008 FIA GT Championship Calendar

[vetteheadracer]

1. 20th April Silverstone Great Britain

2. 18th May Monza Italy

3. 21st June Adria Italy (Saturday Night Race)

4. 6th July Oschersleben Germany

5. 3rd August Total 24 Hours of Spa Belgium

6. 31st August Bucarest Romania

7. 14th September Brno Czech Republic

8. 28th September Nogaro France

9. 18th October Zolder Belgium

10. 23rd November San Luis Argentina

[shadowninja]

I thought this was going to be a calendar with pictures of GT cars.

[vetteheadracer]

shadowninja said:

I thought this was going to be a calendar with pictures of GT cars.

Just for you......

January

[shadowninja]

Excellent. Now what about the rest?

[Sean Edwards]

Nogaro and Adria, bollox... Auful karting tracks those, really don't see why we go there!

Argentina should be cool!

[johnph]

Anyone feel that they need to merge FIA GT and LMS in a Champ Car/IRL, ALMS/Grand-Am (for me that would mean scrapping GA and shifting all its teams and a few of its tracks into ALMS) kind of way?

You could have the Spa 24 (open to protos again), the Mil Milhas, the 4 classic 1000km races (Spa, Silverstone, Nring and Monza), then have 4 or 5 3hr races, inlcluding that Argentinian track, Mugello (because its great track and needs more races there), and Silverstone for RAC Tourist Trophy.

[SimonY]

FIA GT is good because the GT cars get more coverage, wheras in the LMES they can be a bit overlooked.

Out of interest how many paid drives are there in FIA GT? Quite a few of the teams seem to have top quality pairings, instead of the one wealthy amateur/one pro thing that normally happens.

Edited by SimonY on Thursday 8th November 16:55

[Ahonen]

johnph said:

Anyone feel that they need to merge FIA GT and LMS in a Champ Car/IRL, ALMS/Grand-Am (for me that would mean scrapping GA and shifting all its teams and a few of its tracks into ALMS) kind of way?

You could have the Spa 24 (open to protos again), the Mil Milhas, the 4 classic 1000km races (Spa, Silverstone, Nring and Monza), then have 4 or 5 3hr races, inlcluding that Argentinian track, Mugello (because its great track and needs more races there), and Silverstone for RAC Tourist Trophy.

Why? LMS is way oversubscribed as it is (80 entries this year for 55 places).

FIA GTs undoubtedly need longer races though, not the silly 2-hour ones with the ridiculous 2-stops (in GT1) that they have at the moment. The Spa 24 makes a great Blue Riband event for the GTs, as they usually play second fiddle in the big races.

Oh and none of us want to go to the South American tracks, which is why LMS only has about 20 cars out there at the moment!

[johnph]

Ahonen said:

johnph said:

Anyone feel that they need to merge FIA GT and LMS in a Champ Car/IRL, ALMS/Grand-Am (for me that would mean scrapping GA and shifting all its teams and a few of its tracks into ALMS) kind of way?

You could have the Spa 24 (open to protos again), the Mil Milhas, the 4 classic 1000km races (Spa, Silverstone, Nring and Monza), then have 4 or 5 3hr races, inlcluding that Argentinian track, Mugello (because its great track and needs more races there), and Silverstone for RAC Tourist Trophy.

Why? LMS is way oversubscribed as it is (80 entries this year for 55 places).

FIA GTs undoubtedly need longer races though, not the silly 2-hour ones with the ridiculous 2-stops (in GT1) that they have at the moment. The Spa 24 makes a great Blue Riband event for the GTs, as they usually play second fiddle in the big races.

Oh and none of us want to go to the South American tracks, which is why LMS only has about 20 cars out there at the moment!

Good idea

I would like to see FIA GT go back to the 500km/3 hours format. Spa as a GT only event makes sense.

[Ahonen]

johnph said:

Ahonen said:

johnph said:

Anyone feel that they need to merge FIA GT and LMS in a Champ Car/IRL, ALMS/Grand-Am (for me that would mean scrapping GA and shifting all its teams and a few of its tracks into ALMS) kind of way?

You could have the Spa 24 (open to protos again), the Mil Milhas, the 4 classic 1000km races (Spa, Silverstone, Nring and Monza), then have 4 or 5 3hr races, inlcluding that Argentinian track, Mugello (because its great track and needs more races there), and Silverstone for RAC Tourist Trophy.

Why? LMS is way oversubscribed as it is (80 entries this year for 55 places).

FIA GTs undoubtedly need longer races though, not the silly 2-hour ones with the ridiculous 2-stops (in GT1) that they have at the moment. The Spa 24 makes a great Blue Riband event for the GTs, as they usually play second fiddle in the big races.

Oh and none of us want to go to the South American tracks, which is why LMS only has about 20 cars out there at the moment!

Good idea

I would like to see FIA GT go back to the 500km/3 hours format. Spa as a GT only event makes sense.

You're absolutely right: the old 3 hour format worked perfectly and always gave close finishes. But SRO have these strange ideas that we all want to do 1-hour races - they're even forcing us to do them in Belcar next year, but Belcar has worked perfectly with a 125-minute format for years.

Some heads need to be banged together. We don't want short races and neither do the manufacturers. This isn't WTCC; it's endurance racing.

[johnph]

What happened to the 25 entries that dn't make it into the LMS? - Assuming most of them are GTs then they could have easily boosted the FIA GT grid. I can only assune they went to the national championships that run GT1/GT2 cars like FFSA GT and Nordic Supercar.

Edited by johnph on Friday 9th November 15:18

[Chris Patey]

Is the FIA GT staying on a 2hour race format again next year or do you think it will change again back to 3hours? Saw them at silverstone for the past two years and i preferred the 3hour race in 2006 lots more action near the end.

[vetteheadracer]

johnph said:

Anyone feel that they need to merge FIA GT and LMS in a Champ Car/IRL, ALMS/Grand-Am (for me that would mean scrapping GA and shifting all its teams and a few of its tracks into ALMS) kind of way?

You could have the Spa 24 (open to protos again), the Mil Milhas, the 4 classic 1000km races (Spa, Silverstone, Nring and Monza), then have 4 or 5 3hr races, inlcluding that Argentinian track, Mugello (because its great track and needs more races there), and Silverstone for RAC Tourist Trophy.

I keep suggesting they combine ALMS and LMES plus Le Mans into a World Sports Car Endurance Series with Le Mans points counting double or treble and then Sebring, Petit Le Mans, Road America and Laguna Seca from ALMS and Monza, Spa, Silverstone and Nurburgring from LMES.

That way for those WSCES rounds they would be guaranteed 40 plus cars and for the smaller teams they would still have ALMS / LMES for the other rounds.

I think it would make a fantastic series with the four classes.

[ft500]

Will Team Berlanga get on the grid this coming year as apparently the team is up for sale,crying shame as those guys ended up with a good car.
The last race in Dubai was a cracking finale for them,hope its not the last we see of the KZ1R in this event as this rare car had the capabilities to cause more upsets in 2008,but if the owner cans it as he has with the roadgoing version it would be just tragic, oh the highs and lows of motorracing!

[ft500]

Latest I am hearing is most of the Berlanga team have left Ascari or are in the process of leaving so who knows whats going to happen to the team for next year,apparently the Team Manager has left and is working on a James Bond project over up in Pinewood Studios..