RE: FIA GT3 European Championship Promises Thrills

[DodoRacing]

Finally, a truly international tin-top series with enough variety of exotic but close to production cars that can be associated with their road going siblings. Even better that they will not race in the shadow of prototypes that make them look standing still.

As much as I appreciate and respect the talent and professionalism in WTCC and BTCC, I can not get myself excited with the cars on the grid.

[boxsey]

chevronb37 said:

Looking forward to it. British championship at Oulton Park was a nice warm-up.

and should be even better with twice the number of cars on the grid . Let's hope it's a bit warmer on the day though!

[slivka]

It will make for great racing, but remember that all the cars have had their performance balanced.
Not my cup of tea, but to each his own.

[chevronb37]

boxsey said:

chevronb37 said:

Looking forward to it. British championship at Oulton Park was a nice warm-up.

and should be even better with twice the number of cars on the grid . Let's hope it's a bit warmer on the day though!

I remember when it snowed at the Easter meeting about 15 years ago! Dino Morelli was struggling to demonstrate a F3000 Lola...

The GT3 Championship is a real success story - particularly in terms of keeping it predominantly an amateur series. The various domestic championships seem strong as well. We saw the Italian one last year and there was a good grid with some GT2 cars as well. Stephane Ratel deserves credit for creating a strong European (and now global) platform for GT racing.

[Spiritual_Beggar]

So who else is going along to this?

[Killer2005]

Bloody love the look of GT3 cars

[zebedee]

chevronb37 said:

Stephane Ratel deserves credit for creating a strong European (and now global) platform for GT racing.

Apart from any credit due (and in my view that is very limited, because he is still not promoting the races anywhere near enough and filling grandstands) is also heavily tainted by his failure to provide a FIA GT2 championship this year, instead creating a championship with lots of 'grandfathered' GT1s that we won't even be able to watch on tv as he has sold the rights to some business channel - Bloomberg and a look at their schedules for the weekend show they aren't even showing it.

Great!

[chevronb37]

zebedee said:

chevronb37 said:

Stephane Ratel deserves credit for creating a strong European (and now global) platform for GT racing.

Apart from any credit due (and in my view that is very limited, because he is still not promoting the races anywhere near enough and filling grandstands) is also heavily tainted by his failure to provide a FIA GT2 championship this year, instead creating a championship with lots of 'grandfathered' GT1s that we won't even be able to watch on tv as he has sold the rights to some business channel - Bloomberg and a look at their schedules for the weekend show they aren't even showing it.

Great!

I couldn't really comment on TV and marketing - I don't watch much motorsport on the TV as I spend most weekends watching it live and most weekdays working. However, I have been attending GT events - British, BPR and FIA since 1995. There has been a significant increase in spectator numbers across the board. The old Privilege GT Championship was a mixed bag of mostly club teams. I love that, but GT Cup and Britcar now fill that void. British GT is an altogether more professional act with better driving and the finest cars since the late 1990s of F1 GTRs and 911 GT1s. The crowd at Oulton Park was very healthy indeed - certainly the strongest I've seen for either F3 or GTs in over 20 years of attendance. The F3/GT package is now a really exciting bill.

The FIA championships are a bit different and suffering from a general shake-up. The World GT1 idea has been knocking around since before the "credit crunch". It was always liable to be affected by that. Personally, I don't like the idea of grandfathered cars particularly, but I very much doubt I'll appreciate the 3-4 sec difference in lap times around Silverstone. And that way I get to see MC12s and DBR9s for an extra year or two. Not a bad deal, I suppose. Re GT2, that was always going to be difficult when ALMS and LMS are enjoying such strong GT2 fields. He is probably also finding that GT3 has rather circumnavigated GT2 as well. It would be nice to see a mixed grid of GT1 and GT2 for Spa 24hrs, but we'll see.

To discuss a little his role as "governor" of GT racing, I actually think he's done a decent job. Over the last 15 years he's managed to maintain a consitently high level of decent drivers racing decent cars over decent circuits. He's managed to neatly homogenise GT racing across Europe which deserves credit in itself. We went to see the Italian GT and F3 championships last year at Magione. It featured a nice grid of well-prepared cars including works-supported efforts from Audi and Porsche. I doubt that would've been the case without Ratel's passion for Grand Touring racing.

Anway, each to his/her own. I understand your reservations, but those are my reasons for quite admiring the chaps.

[zebedee]

well presented case and glad the punters were there at Oulton. I think TV is important, because often this is how people will become aware of a series in the first place and start to follow it. GT afficionados like ourselves will hunt it out wherever and go and see it and be aware of the new series etc coming up through specialist websites etc, but the sport needs more and more fans if it is to be sustainable.

Bllomberg do not appear to be showing the apparently world class GT1 world championship that they have 'bought' the rights for (if indeed they have, and it wasn't just a case of trying to convince the teams they'd be aired in at least 200m homes worldwide or whatever) and I have heard a rumour that ESPN are in fact showing it. I don't get ESPN.

I'm just a bit annoyed with how it has all come together, but don't get me wrong, I hope the racing is fantastic and I can get to see it somehow - volcano dust is stopping me flying to Yas Marina tonight even if I could afford to!

[chevronb37]

zebedee said:

well presented case and glad the punters were there at Oulton. I think TV is important, because often this is how people will become aware of a series in the first place and start to follow it. GT afficionados like ourselves will hunt it out wherever and go and see it and be aware of the new series etc coming up through specialist websites etc, but the sport needs more and more fans if it is to be sustainable.

Bllomberg do not appear to be showing the apparently world class GT1 world championship that they have 'bought' the rights for (if indeed they have, and it wasn't just a case of trying to convince the teams they'd be aired in at least 200m homes worldwide or whatever) and I have heard a rumour that ESPN are in fact showing it. I don't get ESPN.

I'm just a bit annoyed with how it has all come together, but don't get me wrong, I hope the racing is fantastic and I can get to see it somehow - volcano dust is stopping me flying to Yas Marina tonight even if I could afford to!

Yeah, was a great turn-out at Oulton - really encouraging for the championship. You are right about needing new fans coming through and raising awareness. GT1 is potentially a very exciting showcase for supercars generally and has all the ingredients to be spectacular. I hope that the TV and promotion is good. It's easy to forget that even for the vast majority of posters on Pistonheads motorsport means an annual trip to the British Grand Prix or Le Mans. Turn-outs at the other meetings I've attended this year haven't been fantastic, but I think FIA GT will be pretty busy as there seems to be a decent amount of hype knocking around.

It's interesting actually as we've been attending DTM since 1994. The crowds at Donington in the early 2000s when they relaunched the championship were poor - I recall something in the region of 6,000 people. Now with MSV and Dr JP promoting heavily at Brands Hatch, there are probably 4x that number. It clearly works. I probably ought to pay more attention to the adverts in Autosport.

Can you not get to Silverstone next month? Loads better than watching on the telly.

[Viper]

got the timetable today, see you there

Sunday
09:30-10:00 FIA GT1 World Championship Warm Up
10:30-10:50 Cooper Tires British F3 Int.Series Race
11:00-11:30 Pit lane Walk about and drivers autograph signing
12:15-13:15 FIA GT3 European Championship Race
13:45-14:25 GT4 European Cup Race
15:15-16:15 FIA GT1 World Championship Race
16:45-17:25 Cooper Tires British F3 Int.Series Race

Edited by Viper on Friday 16th April 19:12

[zebedee]

chevron, yes, I think I will be there, its the other rounds I'm moaning about, such as the opening one that took place this weekend just gone, but was not shown on the FIA's new TV partner, Bloomberg. So what's the point in the TV deal?