'Too fast' for British GT?
Discussion
The below was taken from RJN's Facebook/twitter page.
British GT Championship entry refused on grounds of anticipated pace of new recruits
Nissan’s GT Academy Team RJN entry for a two-car assault on the British GT Championship has been refused as the drivers are “too fast” for the national Pro-Am category.
In 2012 GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough entered the British GT Championship alongside Alex Buncombe in the brand new Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3. Alex was the professional and Jann was the amateur as at that point his racing experience was incredibly limited. They pushed hard and by the close of the season the duo were in with a shot of winning the championship outright.
In 2013 the threat of the talent of the newest GT Academy winners is far too real.
“I have a lot of admiration for GT Academy,” said British GT Championship Manager Benjamin Franassovici. “It has shown itself to be a great way to source raw talent and turn that into real racing talent as we saw in British GT last year with Jann Mardenborough. However Nissan’s ability to find such amazing raw talent means that we cannot accept their full season entry for British GT in 2013. Their new recruits have very little racing experience so they have to be on the lowest performance grade. Their talent, going on Jann’s speed last year, doesn’t reflect this lack of experience so it is not fair to put them up against our Pro/Gentleman grid, the basis of British GT3. Hats off to Nissan though and I should point out that there are no closed doors here.”
During the 2012 British GT season Jann Mardenborough was deemed ‘too fast’ for his performance grading but as he didn’t meet any of the higher criteria the organisers had no choice other than to apply a time penalty to allow the others to catch up. In his first full season as a racing driver Jann’s talent was recognised by the British Racing Driver’s Club who awarded him Rising Star status and he was also awarded a place on the prestigious MSA Academy, run by the governing body of motorsport in the UK.
In 2013 four new winners of GT Academy are ready to race after going through the intensive GT Academy Driver Development Programme. The four drivers are Wolfgang Reip (2012 European winner from Belgium), Mark Shulzhitskiy (2012 Russian winner), Peter Pyzera (2012 German winner) and Steve Doherty (2012 US winner).
“We don’t know yet if the new guys will be as fast as Jann but British GT have decided not to take the risk,” said Nissan’s Global Motorsports Director Darren Cox. “It’s disappointing that we can’t put any of our new winners into the British GT Championship as it was a great learning experience for Jann. It’s also very flattering at the same time though. Being told you are too fast isn’t something that happens very often in any competitive sport. We’re working hard now to make sure our new graduates have a great race programme this year.”
British GT Championship entry refused on grounds of anticipated pace of new recruits
Nissan’s GT Academy Team RJN entry for a two-car assault on the British GT Championship has been refused as the drivers are “too fast” for the national Pro-Am category.
In 2012 GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough entered the British GT Championship alongside Alex Buncombe in the brand new Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3. Alex was the professional and Jann was the amateur as at that point his racing experience was incredibly limited. They pushed hard and by the close of the season the duo were in with a shot of winning the championship outright.
In 2013 the threat of the talent of the newest GT Academy winners is far too real.
“I have a lot of admiration for GT Academy,” said British GT Championship Manager Benjamin Franassovici. “It has shown itself to be a great way to source raw talent and turn that into real racing talent as we saw in British GT last year with Jann Mardenborough. However Nissan’s ability to find such amazing raw talent means that we cannot accept their full season entry for British GT in 2013. Their new recruits have very little racing experience so they have to be on the lowest performance grade. Their talent, going on Jann’s speed last year, doesn’t reflect this lack of experience so it is not fair to put them up against our Pro/Gentleman grid, the basis of British GT3. Hats off to Nissan though and I should point out that there are no closed doors here.”
During the 2012 British GT season Jann Mardenborough was deemed ‘too fast’ for his performance grading but as he didn’t meet any of the higher criteria the organisers had no choice other than to apply a time penalty to allow the others to catch up. In his first full season as a racing driver Jann’s talent was recognised by the British Racing Driver’s Club who awarded him Rising Star status and he was also awarded a place on the prestigious MSA Academy, run by the governing body of motorsport in the UK.
In 2013 four new winners of GT Academy are ready to race after going through the intensive GT Academy Driver Development Programme. The four drivers are Wolfgang Reip (2012 European winner from Belgium), Mark Shulzhitskiy (2012 Russian winner), Peter Pyzera (2012 German winner) and Steve Doherty (2012 US winner).
“We don’t know yet if the new guys will be as fast as Jann but British GT have decided not to take the risk,” said Nissan’s Global Motorsports Director Darren Cox. “It’s disappointing that we can’t put any of our new winners into the British GT Championship as it was a great learning experience for Jann. It’s also very flattering at the same time though. Being told you are too fast isn’t something that happens very often in any competitive sport. We’re working hard now to make sure our new graduates have a great race programme this year.”
The GT Academy only have themselves to blame (and not in a particularly bad way). They allowed Jann and the others to test more than anyone else. The seat time for them was massive and almost constant, meaning that they would be up to speed very quickly. Unfortunately it meant that whilst they had hardly any races under their belt, they had spent more time in the cars than probably more than the rest of the grid combined.
Victims of their own success and as mentioned above, hardly bad publicity!
Victims of their own success and as mentioned above, hardly bad publicity!
Slightly short sighted. Its either the National GT3 series OR its a Gentleman's drivers club. If the latter, call it such. Or does the average paying public think they are seeing the best of what the class has to offer? Because apparently, that's not actually allowed to take part.
Perhaps they feel their grids are so strong, they can do without the extra exposure of a well publicised talent search scheme with a factory backing? Perhaps the "Gentlemen" really don't like the idea that you can compete at a high level on talent alone and not pots of cash as well?
Perhaps they feel their grids are so strong, they can do without the extra exposure of a well publicised talent search scheme with a factory backing? Perhaps the "Gentlemen" really don't like the idea that you can compete at a high level on talent alone and not pots of cash as well?
From what was said on RLM British GT is generally made up of older amateur drivers that pay for the drive and the organisers didn't want to upset them by allowing some highly talented and well funded youngsters coming along wiping the floor with them. As this could then cause all the older guys with their money going to other championships which would kill the championship.
There are plenty of championships for the GT academy drivers to compete in so its almost a no lose situation for them.
There are plenty of championships for the GT academy drivers to compete in so its almost a no lose situation for them.
Played differently, the British GT could have got some good publicity out of it. GT Academy is fast becoming a widely known success - its now even got a place on terrestrial TV I see which the BGT languishes on Motors TV, or Channel 4 at random o'clock.
Didn't the BGT allow the United Autosports R8s to race a couple of years back but lumbered them with ballast to even it out a bit?
Some mutual brand awareness could hav easily been gotten out of all this.
Didn't the BGT allow the United Autosports R8s to race a couple of years back but lumbered them with ballast to even it out a bit?
Some mutual brand awareness could hav easily been gotten out of all this.
How can people look at it any other way?
The name - Pro-Am. As in 1 pro, 1 ameteaur. Since when was a bloke in a factory backed car, put there by the factory, and with massive testing at the factory's expence been an ameteaur? They might be inexperienced, but they certainly fit the "pro" description IMO.
The name - Pro-Am. As in 1 pro, 1 ameteaur. Since when was a bloke in a factory backed car, put there by the factory, and with massive testing at the factory's expence been an ameteaur? They might be inexperienced, but they certainly fit the "pro" description IMO.
Thought Mardenborough was racing down under this year?
Not sure Blancpain is the right place for RJN/Nissan/GT Academy either, BGT is based on the Blancpain Pro-Am model. Surely the right place for Nissan if this factory effort is GTE Pro or maybe GTE Am or ELMS, where better drivers and more manufacturer involvement would level the playing field. You can understand why BGT has done this, SRO moved to the GT3 model as it the champ was dying, gentleman drivers bring private wealth either in cash or "sponsorship", pro drivers/"coach" get to go racing as a career, and private teams make a viable business, while SRO keep a level playing field by performance balancing cars and drivers, to avoid an arms race or £££ race that ultimately kills the golden goose, and puts BGT back on its ass.
RJN, Nissan's involvement(?) and it's GT Academy triumvirate doesn't play nice in that model. Victim of its own success.
Not sure Blancpain is the right place for RJN/Nissan/GT Academy either, BGT is based on the Blancpain Pro-Am model. Surely the right place for Nissan if this factory effort is GTE Pro or maybe GTE Am or ELMS, where better drivers and more manufacturer involvement would level the playing field. You can understand why BGT has done this, SRO moved to the GT3 model as it the champ was dying, gentleman drivers bring private wealth either in cash or "sponsorship", pro drivers/"coach" get to go racing as a career, and private teams make a viable business, while SRO keep a level playing field by performance balancing cars and drivers, to avoid an arms race or £££ race that ultimately kills the golden goose, and puts BGT back on its ass.
RJN, Nissan's involvement(?) and it's GT Academy triumvirate doesn't play nice in that model. Victim of its own success.
Disagree with that ban to be honest. Anyone can do as much or as little testing as they like, same with track days. Are they going to start counting all the track/test days people are doing and grade people on that? Its a race and if the car is elibable then it should be up to the rest of the field to speed up rather than squashing talent to artificially keep the class slower.
In my experience racing is massively different to testing anyway, just because you can set a quick laptime, doing it in a race is a very different thing. It seems unfair to exclude them on these grounds, although as said the publicity is probably welcomed!
In my experience racing is massively different to testing anyway, just because you can set a quick laptime, doing it in a race is a very different thing. It seems unfair to exclude them on these grounds, although as said the publicity is probably welcomed!
The FIA licencing system for Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze drivers used to determine which pairings are eligible for Blancpain, British GT etc, underestimated the speed of the GT Academy graduates which is why this year they are being reclassed due to the success of the previous drivers.
Reading between the lines I don't think its a driver pairing issue. The bigger problem is allowing drivers with plenty of pace, plenty of somebody else's budget in somebody else's car but zero race experience to bump wheels with their regular, paying customers. To be fair, it is a genuine recipe for carnage.
Just my 2p.
The new 'talent' are novices, just benefitting from external support they could only dream of. Good for them.
LH picked up a lot of support early in his karting career but few people b
hed at this, or his & others speed, compared to class averages. Imagine if he'd been banned for having a lot of support or track time? No.
Does this team technically comply with regs for this championship? Yes or No.
To me this action is anti competitive and smacks of the green eyed monster from some who's egos must have been dented more than their wallets last year. Shame.
The new 'talent' are novices, just benefitting from external support they could only dream of. Good for them.
LH picked up a lot of support early in his karting career but few people b
hed at this, or his & others speed, compared to class averages. Imagine if he'd been banned for having a lot of support or track time? No. Does this team technically comply with regs for this championship? Yes or No.
To me this action is anti competitive and smacks of the green eyed monster from some who's egos must have been dented more than their wallets last year. Shame.
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff