GT Trophy - Brands Hatch

[Steve Britcar]

Any views on yesterday's race?

Here's a photo of the start.

[Andy 308GTB]

Steve Britcar said:

Any views on yesterday's race?

Considering it was a relatively small grid (16 cars) there was a good mix of cars (Porsche, Ferrari, Molser, Corvette, Marcos, Lotus etc).

A real shame to see the Fenn NSX burst into flames within 15 seconds of the start but that was the only non-finisher. This brought out the safety car and threw a lot of peoples strategies out of the window. The eventual winner (Paragon Porsche 997 RSR) took immediate advantage of this by coming in for 1 of the 2 mandatory pit stops but the safety car was out for several laps so 60% of the other teams ended up doing the same. This added an extra element to the race.

The handicapping (by adding time to the mandatory pit stops) seems a good idea - although I did hear some teams weren't convinced it was level across the 3 different classes.

I thought it was a good afternoon - even the sun came out for it

[Simon Mason]

In concept and without a solid class structure before hand, I think the organisers did a very good job. However, being stationary in the pits for 3 minutes 20 seconds...... TWICE!!! was fustrating. Because we were comfortably the fastest car in the slowest class our penalty took the competitive element out of the race and made the racing what I can only discribe as a track experience run. However, the organisers are realy nice people, the facilities were very good indeed, the pirelli tyres were very impressive for 2 hours straight and the weather and circuit were amoungst the best the UK can offer so it was a good day in all.

Technicaly speaking, the handicaps meant that unlike in say British GT or Britcar the lower classes could'nt compete for an overall result of any note. For me this takes out one of the main motivations of long distance racing but it had to be tried.

[Steve Britcar]

Simon, you won your class, which isn't bad for an "experience run", or as Chris told me before the race, "a test session for Spa".

I didn't understand the "fastest declared lap time" which determined the handicap. Yours was shown as 1:38.00, which was faster than the best lap of the car in qualifying, which was 1:39.466, but, then again, yours was, as you say, still the fastest in your group.

I'm not sure about novelties like this in serious endurance racing - they turn it towards "sports entertainment", which needs an audience to be intrigued by the spectacle. Just run a straight, old fashioned motor race is my view.

Good to see Britcar racers past and present showing the way.

[Steve Britcar]

Here's a pic of the Lotus.....

[nre]

I enjoyed the race and the day as a whole, a bigger grid would have obviously been nice but you've got to start somewhere, there was still interest right to the end particular with the marcos and mosler going at it until the latter chucked it off. Its a bit of a shame the safety car right at the start stymied the handicappers hard work but those that were prepared and pitted straight away came out well while others notably the corvette didn't. Probably the only way to get round that and similar is to prevent stops during the safety car.

[Andy 308GTB]

Simon Mason said:

Technicaly speaking, the handicaps meant that unlike in say British GT or Britcar the lower classes could'nt compete for an overall result of any note. For me this takes out one of the main motivations of long distance racing but it had to be tried.

I assumed that handicapping would be applied such that in theory all cars would cross the finishing line at the same time. Were the cars handicapped at a class level (i.e. with the individual classes not handicapped versus each other). Early on in the race they spoke to the manager of the Paragon team (I think) and he put it completely the other way round! He thought his car had been overly handicapped in relation to the lower classes. But as has been said the early Safety Car threw the whole lot out of the window.

Steve Britcar said:

I'm not sure about novelties like this in serious endurance racing - they turn it towards "sports entertainment", which needs an audience to be intrigued by the spectacle. Just run a straight, old fashioned motor race is my view.

The purist in me agrees with you but the handicapping surely brings in more entrants. As in theory it creates a level playing field for amateur drivers and it doesn't exclude cars. Moslers being a prime example of cars that people want to race, spectators want to see but are often seen as on the limit of the class (British GT debacle last year)
Also a key point of the GT Cup/Trophy is that they are a series of races not a Championship, so these are not a season long grind of clocking up points but one days racing. Going to the circuit knowing that your opportunity to be on the podium is down to your driving and tactics must encourage drivers to get their cars out (in theory and reliant on the handicapping)


No offence taken if you correct me on any of the above points - you are both much closer to the sport than me!

[Simon Mason]

Steve Britcar said:

Simon, you won your class, which isn't bad for an "experience run", or as Chris told me before the race, "a test session for Spa".

I didn't understand the "fastest declared lap time" which determined the handicap. Yours was shown as 1:38.00, which was faster than the best lap of the car in qualifying, which was 1:39.466, but, then again, yours was, as you say, still the fastest in your group.

I'm not sure about novelties like this in serious endurance racing - they turn it towards "sports entertainment", which needs an audience to be intrigued by the spectacle. Just run a straight, old fashioned motor race is my view.

Good to see Britcar racers past and present showing the way.

The car was literaly thrown together the night before complete with new rear sub frame so handled like pig in qualifying. We reconned we would be 2 seconds faster in the race and let the organisers know in the interest's of fair play. Thats why we had one of the biggest pit stop penalties in the field.

Half the joy of endurance racing from our side is being able to punch above our weight or budget by preparation and team work which only comes into play over a distance. The handicaps system removed that element. But it was none the less enjoyable.

[Simon Mason]

Andy, on the bassis we had a 200 second penalty and the Porsche had a 163 second penalty you can safely assume its class based not overall finish based. It would be very difficult to handicap and balance the whole field. You'd have the slowest cars doing 1 minute stops and the fastest doing 5 minute stops.

[Andy 308GTB]

Simon Mason said:

Andy, on the bassis we had a 200 second penalty and the Porsche had a 163 second penalty you can safely assume its class based not overall finish based. It would be very difficult to handicap and balance the whole field. You'd have the slowest cars doing 1 minute stops and the fastest doing 5 minute stops.

Thanks for that - handicapping has moved on since the Brooklands days

[Markgt3]

I was down at brands to have a look and it was lovely weather and a nice mix of cars but the handicap system was all wrong IMO because some cars in group 2 had longer pitstops than group 1 so that means a good team and driver in the lower groups had no chance of an overall podium which i think is very wrong

Also thanks to John and Sam at Team Kinfaun for making me very welcome

[bin389]

A few shots from the day.Apologies for starting a separate thread above as pointed out.Tim