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Buys SRL. Well, colour me surprised. Hope Lindström made sure the GT's are given equal billing when they signed the contract, would be a damn shame to see it reduced to second fiddle. And even as he spoke I thought his words were somewhat disconected from the rest of the gang - the GT's are, as he said, a tried and tested concept with cars all over Europe. Which is (spec series aside) one of TTA's major problems.
So still not sure why you would lay the foundations of a strong series only to let someone else come in and steal your thunder. Well, I suppose they (Leif-Stanley-Poker) got out on the plus side money wise and can stay involved with less risks. Not the fate of many who starts a racing series.
It does give them a lot better footing to stand on than SSK with Porsche. FrenchSpecs, GT's, Abarth, Ginetta's and the motorcycles is a package that will fill a day of racing no problems. Carrera Cup stays with STCC, which isn't surprising what with Solvalla and the GT's being a direct competitor. Not that it matters much in the long run, the GT's are a stronger platform and should win out in the end. Might still get a decent enough field in CC but nothing compared to the GT field.
Final race in Gothenburg? Pretty sad that both series will run gimmick finales. It's no way to decide a championship, though I suppose Gothenburg is more survivable than Solvalla. Makes you wonder how the contracts looked when TTA were able to steal it from STCC, whether or not Volvo owns the track. Unless it expired this year (which I don't think it did?), you would have thought a normal contract would have put it on both calendars (or even just STCC, if it had been written by Bernie).
No Mantorp or Knutstorp? I mean, there's two TBA's, sure, but what about the GT and Autoropa cooperation? Seems like a strong tieup to throw in the dustbin. Quite survivable with this new package, yes, but was there really no way to work those events into the main calendar? And you run on three permanent tracks when we've got eight in this country (same applies to STCC with four), please come the **** on. But hey, Anderstorp is back, so there's at least something to like.
And as far as I could hear there was nothing about TV coverage mentioned? Though I suppose it shouldn't be as difficult now with the GT package. Would be damn funny if both STCC and this ended up on Viasat.
In closing, surprised to see it end up with SRL? Yeah. But it takes away many organizational questions and makes it happening a lot more likely. And with STCC's quite frankly useless TV coverage still going strong, whoever can actually bring a race to the viewer and let them know what's going on (as opposed to randomly filming cars going by) will probably get out on top. Provided that the racing isn't dull.
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