GT OPEN 2014 - Page 2

J Jay · 6 Sep 2014, 15:53 (Ref:3450783)

First of all, glad to see Tutmulu walks away uninjured. As far as Eau Rouge/Radillion crashes go, that was one thankfully rather mild.

But even I'm only glancing over at the stream as pseudo-protest against BSS (tape-delayed on BT Sport ... for rugby union). It was easier to ignore that this is a glorified club series when the likes of Manthey were racing, but now there's no hiding from it.

Speed-King · 6 Sep 2014, 16:24 (Ref:3450790)

They really had a shot at greatness back in 2012, hadn't they? Somehow they managed to blow it, though I am still not quite sure how.

In hindsight, bringing the GT1 Vettes into the Ferrari vs Porsche battle was maybe not the smartest idea and I can see that being a factor in Weissach and Maranello pulling out their semi-works cars. The Porsche factory program in WEC GTE might have played into it as well, though.

Deleted · 1 Nov 2014, 17:00 (Ref:3470543)

I see that apart from the tweaked GT1&GT2 Corvette trio, the grid has now fully morphed into another GT3 clone that cannot be distinguished from any other European GT series
http://www.gtopen.net/contenuti/file...20GT%20fin.pdf

The separation between SGT and GTS is now utterly useless as well. You have the Corvettes and two GT3 cars in upper class, then bunch of GT3s in the lower one - what's the point anymore now that GT2/Es have vanished? Certainly no reason to keep the SGT above via bigger restrictors etc

jasonjessica09 · 1 Nov 2014, 17:58 (Ref:3470550)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chiana

I see that apart from the tweaked GT1&GT2 Corvette trio, the grid has now fully morphed into another GT3 clone that cannot be distinguished from any other European GT series
http://www.gtopen.net/contenuti/file...20GT%20fin.pdf

The separation between SGT and GTS is now utterly useless as well. You have the Corvettes and two GT3 cars in upper class, then bunch of GT3s in the lower one - what's the point anymore now that GT2/Es have vanished? Certainly no reason to keep the SGT above via bigger restrictors etc

Unless the series can bring in teams who will field actual genuine GTE cars, then let it die

geordiecriag101 · 1 Nov 2014, 23:43 (Ref:3470610)

Just seen this thread, been following the series for last few years and agree with comments above that it just turning into standard GT series, hopefully the organisers can tempt a few more of the GTE cars in next year.

Any how more than just a little bit late but here's my vid of the action from Silverstone this year complete with support series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNKdfEnm20g

Deleted · 2 Nov 2014, 00:03 (Ref:3470614)

Allowing GT3s into SGT for this year basically killed any reason to show up with GTE car.

Speed-King · 7 Nov 2014, 20:59 (Ref:3472604)

http://www.endurance-info.com/en/int...mula-for-2015/

GTOpen becomes a BSS knockoff.

Deleted · 7 Nov 2014, 22:44 (Ref:3472636)

As if you needed any more ways to make it more generic.

Also guess it's bye bye for the downtuned GT1 and GT2 Corvettes

tux · 9 May 2015, 12:44 (Ref:3535800)

Is this the end for the series? 13 cars at Estoril only 11 GT3. At the opening round at Paul Ricard they had 13 cars also.

J Jay · 9 May 2015, 12:52 (Ref:3535803)

They'll meander around Europe for the next couple of years I imagine, but the series is stuck in a GT3 rut. The organizers may have felt it necessary to go full-on GT3 to keep a couple of new entries coming each year, but in the process they've lost what little they had to differentiate themselves.

Anything GTO can do BSS can do better...

carbon_titanium · 9 May 2015, 12:57 (Ref:3535805)

I've read somewhere that from silverstone will be added a gt-cup class to have at least 20 cars on grid. Such a shame that gt-open is dying in this way... with ADAC GT was the best sprint GT championship in 2012

Speed-King · 9 May 2015, 13:03 (Ref:3535807)

Quote:

Originally Posted by carbon_titanium

I've read somewhere that from silverstone will be added a gt-cup class to have at least 20 cars on grid. Such a shame that gt-open is dying in this way... with ADAC GT was the best sprint GT championship in 2012

GT-Open really isn't the only series with such problems... all the national series have a hard time coming up with 20 or more GT3-cars and those that realized that a while ago (like British or Italian GT) and established sub-GT3-classes are the ones that are looking golden right now. Even ADAC GT-Masters (with a pretty strong German economy behind it) is looking a bit lackluster this year.

Not saying GT3 is dead or dying, but I think it has reached at least half life right now and the days of full GT3-only grids in Europe are more or less over with the exception of BES.

carbon_titanium · 9 May 2015, 13:24 (Ref:3535815)

my point of view is different... gt-open (that should be an european championship) is struggling because few teams care about; adac gt is struggling because of that 2013 roster cap stupid rule.
GT3 spec/format/whatever is far from be dying

J Jay · 9 May 2015, 14:02 (Ref:3535821)

Just about the only interesting thing I can say about this race/series so far is that Phil Keen is starting on pole.

Some say he will have to get used to working with new colleagues later this year...

Speed-King · 9 May 2015, 14:33 (Ref:3535833)

Quote:

Originally Posted by carbon_titanium

my point of view is different... gt-open (that should be an european championship) is struggling because few teams care about; adac gt is struggling because of that 2013 roster cap stupid rule.
GT3 spec/format/whatever is far from be dying

I don't think that grid cap rule did much if any damage to ADAC GT... they never got even close to the cap in the following years, so I doubt anyone was ever turned away. Just like PWC these days, they (and many teams and drivers) found that very large grids are actually a blessing and a curse... so losing some entries from the 40+ they had back then was pretty much inevitable. Nobody likes to race for 30th place overall.

And it really isn't just ADAC GT, either. France is down to 16 GT3s, Britain at 17-18. Surprisingly (considering the state of their economy), Italy is looking pretty good with 20 GT3s and 19 GT-Cup-cars signed up for the season, but Italy has always been an oddball, struggling when everyone else was doing well and now shining while the rest is in trouble. And of course we don't know how many of those cars will be doing all the races. One team already skipped the first round, so the full season grid stands at 19, which is just about the lower limit of what's acceptable for a stand alone class. So this isn't really "good" either; merely "pretty decent" for Italy in relation to years' past.

And that's not saying anything about former GT-hotbeds Spain and Belgium that have abandoned professional-ish GT-racing all together.

rich07 · 9 May 2015, 19:06 (Ref:3535918)

Quote:

Originally Posted by J Jay

Some say he will have to get used to working with new colleagues later this year...

What makes you say that?

Victor_RO · 9 May 2015, 19:13 (Ref:3535924)

Quote:

Originally Posted by rich07

What makes you say that?

"Some say..."... don't those two words remind of something? A certain white-suited and white-helmeted anonymous racing driver on a certain now-on-a-hiatus British motoring show...

rich07 · 9 May 2015, 19:39 (Ref:3535935)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

"Some say..."... don't those two words remind of something? A certain white-suited and white-helmeted anonymous racing driver on a certain now-on-a-hiatus British motoring show...

Ahah! That went totally over my head

merak1974 · 11 May 2015, 09:11 (Ref:3536388)

Quote:

Originally Posted by tux

Is this the end for the series? 13 cars at Estoril only 11 GT3. At the opening round at Paul Ricard they had 13 cars also.

And the Swiss Team Maserati GT3 had a difficult time at Paul Ricard and got a DNF in race 1 and a DNS in race 2 (and it didn't show up in Estoril...). Anyone knows what happened?

Deleted · 25 Aug 2015, 16:07 (Ref:3568647)

How long until the life support on this thing will finally be ended?

2015 so far
Round 1 R1 - 14 entries in total (14x GT3 in two sub classes)
Round 1 R2 - 11 entries in total (11x GT3 in two sub classes)
Round 2 R1 - 13 entries in total (11x GT3 in two sub classes, 02x Porsche Cup)
Round 2 R2 - 13 entries in total (11x GT3 in two sub classes, 02x Porsche Cup)
Round 3 R1 - 12 entries in total (10x GT3 in two sub classes, 02x Radical)
Round 3 R2 - 11 entries in total (09x GT3 in two sub classes, 02x Radical
Round 4 R1 - 13 entries in total (11x GT3 in two sub classes, 02x Radical)
Round 4 R2 - 11 entries in total (10x GT3 in two sub classes, 01x Radical

Maybe the only thing holding it together is that it is only one series out of the Spanish caravan travelling with it.

Speed-King · 26 Aug 2015, 19:03 (Ref:3568985)

I think they have at least one more card they can play: Trying to merge with another series, specifically the equally struggling Nova Race Euro Series for GT4-ish cars. Together they'd actually have a pretty nice mixed GT3/4-field of around 25-30 cars and the Nova Race organisation has been willing to cooperate with other series in the past. (Though their last partnership with the other GT4 series supposedly ended in a rather bad falling out between the two parties.)

Still, both series (GTO and Nova Race) are in a position where they can't really go on - IIRC a series that needs to rent track time needs around 20 cars to get anywhere near recouping their costs - so some kind of cooperation/merger would be the logical decision.

Deleted · 26 Aug 2015, 19:11 (Ref:3568988)

Never even heard of this Nova series.

Speed-King · 26 Aug 2015, 19:17 (Ref:3568989)

http://www.euroseries.org/

Used to be the Italian Ginetta Cup... last year they teamed up with the (official) GT4 series, but went their own way again this year, allowing non-Ginetta cars in their field. Didn't work all that great, but there have been some interesting entries (Reiter's new KTM, a couple of toe in the water races for a new GT4-spec Maserati).

They already have a bunch of shared weekends with IGTO, so that's another factor that would point towards a cooperation making plenty of sense.

Coach Ep · 26 Aug 2015, 21:40 (Ref:3569026)

If GT Open becomes a club series again and opens up their rules (basically let every GT car in) we'll see a boom again. Something like the German STT and former Divinol Cup, lots of older GTs and occasional DTM cars. But that means back to Spain (and Portugal) and hardly any races in the rest of Europe.

TF110 · 26 Aug 2015, 22:33 (Ref:3569034)

What about that Belgian GT series who has a GT3 Viper, GTE Vette, those Volvo silhouettes? GT Open could emulate that.

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