GT Open 2016

[Bcarr6]

Coincidentally, Mr West is the same West behind the old McLaren F1 sponsorship

[Speed-King]

As someone who had this series essentially written off after last season, I am very surprised to see this kind of resurgence. GT-racing in Europe as a whole seems to be on the up, with the lone puzzling exception on France.

[Deleted]

IGTO seems to fluctuate between horrid and solid grids more than the others.

[Coach Ep]

Is there a livestream available for the races?

[rich07]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

Coincidentally, Mr West is the same West behind the old McLaren F1 sponsorship

Very interesting. Didn't realise that.

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Is there a livestream available for the races?

GT Open always live stream on YouTube and leave the broadcasts on pretty much from the minute they finish so the accessibility is great

[Coach Ep]

Cool, thx. Good to see things being on the rise again, support package looks really strong too!

[MitchZ06]

He's a bit young for that......Alex West is the guy who owns this P1 GTR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl1YJlTi4ac

Haven't found what he actually does but I'm quite sure he isn't part of the West brand. IIRC it was Thomas Bscher that brought the West sponsorship to the F1 GTRs and possibly the deal with the F1 team (*speculation*).

[Marcel ten Caat]

Originally Posted by MitchZ06

Haven't found what he actually does but I'm quite sure he isn't part of the West brand

Correct. Alexander West, the founding partner of Blue Pool Capital Ltd., a Hong Kong-based hedge fund. And before that...he worked with Investor AB, an investment vehicle controlled by the Wallenberg family in Sweden.

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by Marcel ten Caat

Correct. Alexander West, the founding partner of Blue Pool Capital Ltd., a Hong Kong-based hedge fund. And before that...he worked with Investor AB, an investment vehicle controlled by the Wallenberg family in Sweden.

In that case I may be wrong.

His personal McLaren does carry the same colour scheme and West logo though so must be some connection

[MitchZ06]

He's quite a fan of that livery and the name is the same as his surname

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Cool, thx. Good to see things being on the rise again, support package looks really strong too!

Over the past few years IGTO has been a benefactor/victim of the shifting European GT3 landscape, apparently powerless to influence events that directly impact their grids. Hopefully this relatively strong entry list is a sign that they are able to hold on to a strong core of teams for the foreseeable future.

[MaskedRacer]

So how "open" is GT open nowadays. What I liked about the series in the early part of the decade was the mix of GTE and GT3 cars. You can see how they compared to each other without significant BoP's. In IMSA for example GTD is full GT3 now but you gotta to think they could be faster if they were not on those Conti tires.

The lack of technical BoP often made GT Open cars faster than the SRO cars when they share the same track during a year.

So yeah where are the GTE cars in GT Open? Looks like just another GT3 series at this point. We can get that anywhere. This series needs to stand out more and get back to what made it good. Make it open. Let all GTE cars in too. (If there are any takers)

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

You can see how they compared to each other without significant BoP's.)

In the later years the GT2 cars were running huge air restrictors and other BoP breaks against the GT3 cars, that's why they (usually) stayed on top

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

So yeah where are the GTE cars in GT Open? Looks like just another GT3 series at this point. We can get that anywhere. This series needs to stand out more and get back to what made it good. Make it open. Let all GTE cars in too. (If there are any takers)

You could probably count them on a mutilated hand. The loss of diversity is never pleasant, but there's a reason IGTO made the switch.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by J Jay

You could probably count them on a mutilated hand. The loss of diversity is never pleasant, but there's a reason IGTO made the switch.

Actually, it's entirely IGTO's own fault. They had 9 GT2 cars in the last race with dedicated (and speeded up) SGT class reserved for them, you know Barcelona 2013. But then the following year they decided to knee for the crybabys of GT3s, and have them in that same class too, even though there still was additional dedicated GT3 class in GTS. As if the GT3s couldn't win in every GT series overall already. GT2 numbers started immediately dropping. So ultimately, running GT2 car became pointless when you could just well run some ordinary stock GT3 and win overall with that. Later on they then banned GT2s altogether.

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Actually, it's entirely IGTO's own fault. They had 9 GT2 cars in the last race with dedicated (and speeded up) SGT class reserved for them, you know Barcelona 2013. But then the following year they decided to knee for the crybabys of GT3s, and have them in that same class too, even though there still was additional dedicated GT3 class in GTS. As if the GT3s couldn't win in every GT series overall already. GT2 numbers started immediately dropping. So ultimately, running GT2 car became pointless when you could just well run some ordinary stock GT3 and win overall with that. Later on they then banned GT2s altogether.

Ultimately, GT2 was becoming outdated and IGTO wanted to stay modern, and not look like a series for old spec cars like Supercar Challenge.

Just a case of fashionability and marketing value

[Deleted]

How exactly were things like Ferrari 458 GTE outdated by 2013-2014???

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

Ultimately, GT2 was becoming outdated and IGTO wanted to stay modern, and not look like a series for old spec cars like Supercar Challenge.

Just a case of fashionability and marketing value

Seems hypocritical. No more "open" isnt it. They need to do something to stand out, which is what they used to have. Not now. Today they are a poor mans' Euro GT3 series a shadow of SRO.

[Bcarr6]

Kevin Estre is supposedly back in a McLaren for this weekends GT Open in one of the Garage 59 cars. Seems to not be so busy at Porsche...


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[rich07]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

Kevin Estre is supposedly back in a McLaren for this weekends GT Open in one of the Garage 59 cars. Seems to not be so busy at Porsche...


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That's a big surprise. A factory Porsche driver driving for the factory McLaren team.

[schmidder]

Originally Posted by rich07

That's a big surprise. A factory Porsche driver driving for the factory McLaren team.

Punishment for his Sebring crash??

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[Racing Harz]

Originally Posted by rich07

That's a big surprise. A factory Porsche driver driving for the factory McLaren team.

He drove as a factory McLaren driverfor a factory Porsche team

[Speed-King]

Well... seems like my doubts about the series' resurgence were somewhat justified: 14 starters in the first practice session:

http://gtopen.net/contenuti/files/20...penlibres1.pdf

Top speeds are interesting, with the Radical 12kph faster than the next best car. Doesn't translate to very good laptimes, though and personally, I'd have expected the Radical to be low on power but high on downforce.

[BSchneiderFan]

A pretty thin field, compared with Blancpain or British GT.