British GT 2013

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Tim the Grey

I had a lovely gentle day, sitting on a grassy bank, in the sunshine. I did have to wonder if this really WAS Donington. In October...
Good, entertaining, GT race. Both my kids seemed to enjoy it.
Then the small one went to play 'spinning' over the 'stay this side please' barrier. As do all kids, it seems...
And the big one got his desire for 'something interesting to happen, or a crash, please' in Ginettas... Glad to see all the medical attention wasn't needed, down at Old Hairpin. Looked worrying for a while, there.

Ah, might have been your kids playing "balance on the barrier while the orange man is watching the cars" game with me then! They got off without argument when asked

Sadly at least one driver, if not two, ended up with a trip to QMC for checks as a result of support race rumbustiousness (I believe nothing serious as a result). The final Ginetta race (of two halves) saw their clerk out on the grid before part two, tearing them all a new one - with some justification, in my opinion.

I really enjoyed the GT race. It was rather challenging trying to keep up with all the penalties though!

Looking forward to next year's races already. I went to three this year - might try some more in 2014.

[Alfaholic]

I really enjoyed my weekend at Donington. Compared to last year where waterproofs and multiple warm layers were require, the sunshine and warmth were most welcome.

Gary Eastwood put in a sterling first stint as did Gregoire Demoustier, while Duncan Tappy did yet another of his Brands style defences - although how much Jonny Adam was driving with an eye on the points position for Andrew Howard's championship would be interesting to know. GT4 definitely requires more variety.

Don't know what went wrong in the support races on the Sunday as they've been (mostly) well behaved at the other meetings I've been to and everything went without incident on the Saturday.

As for next year - it's good to see that they've kept the mix of race durations and circuits so I hope that work shifts will let me attend quite a few of them.

[TimRTC]

Originally Posted by Alfaholic

Don't know what went wrong in the support races on the Sunday as they've been (mostly) well behaved at the other meetings I've been to and everything went without incident on the Saturday.

In fairness, most of the accidents seemed to be due to over-enthusiasm and cold tyres, with solo spinners being collected on several occasions. The big pile-up that lead to the red flag in the final Ginetta race was actually caused by the first cars on the pack spinning on oil/debris left by the first lap crunch and the incredible dust that always comes up at Old Hairpin blinding the rest of the pack.

[andy97]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

They don't really have enough cars for that, do they?

Also, if there's one thing I am really missing in ADAC GT-Masters it's multiclass racing with more than just the GT3s on track, so I am not quite sure why you would want to get rid of that. (Other than Brit GT4 being rather heavy on the Ginetta side of things perhaps)

I guess my point is that gt3 is growing and there may not be room for gt4. It would therefore be good to encourage gt4 as a stand alone series. There are plenty of gt4 aston martins around (in their own series); next year Ginetta g55s are allowed in to gt4 and there is already an update kit available for the 911 cup cars to be made in to gt4 spec. Add in short few of the gt4 cars from Europe (m3 and even camaros) and there could be a decent field

All in all, can't be more expensive than britcar or gt cup can it? A good option for entry level gt racing without having to worry about being lapped by the gt3 cars and a chance to shine in a stand alone race.

[tux]

They were talking about stand alone GT4 races over the last few years but the GT4 teams were against the idea due to a lack of exposure.

[wewantourdarbyback]

Lovely day on Sunday trackside. The quality of the race was top notch. Considering the size of grids that GT3 is beginning to get it would be nice to get some more exposure for the series as it provides a lot of action.

[wewantourdarbyback]

Originally Posted by Starfish Primer

Back from Donington, great race at the BritishGT. Very dissapointed with the support races, 3 red flags in the first laps, drivers need to be less agressive.

I was very worried with the VW Cup crash, I was at Cramer and it took a long time to extract the driver from the car, I had very bad feelings all that time.

As other members had said, the British GT with one hour more would be perfect. Richard Westbrook stint was superb.

Easily the drive of the day from Westbrook, although Matt Bell's first few laps out of the pits were pretty spectacular.

As for support, less said the better. Didn't see the Ginetta crash but saw the destroyed remains of the car later on. The VW start was just a mess though, the guys at the front were fine but behind it seemed like bumper cars.

[geordiecriag101]

Bit late, but here's sum of the action a managed to get from Saturday's practice n qualifying. As always, great day out, going to be a long winter wait till next season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0ki1u5aA2A

[simon_blay]

Anyone know how Tudor Alexander is, the Ginetta driver that crashed just after lunch on Sunday at Coppice? We were marshaling and were first on scene, nasty crash

[TheNewBob]

Originally Posted by tux

They were talking about stand alone GT4 races over the last few years but the GT4 teams were against the idea due to a lack of exposure.

If they manage to get some better TV time on C4 then maybe a GT4 series might take off, given the right promotion. There is some good coverage on Motors TV, but that is more for the die hard motorsport fans and isn't likely to attract many new viewers (plus the channel is usually only available on the more expensive TV packages).

The current BGT program on Channel 4 is terrible, and for the 2x single hour race meetings each round gets barely 5 minutes of actual racing coverage, and thats on 2 weeks after the race happened at a time of day that nobody will be watching.

No wonder the GT4 grids are small and the teams struggle for exposure, despite the grid and the entertainment being far better than BTCC.

[dwh43scale]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwh38/s...7636317505865/

A few snaps from Sunday here ...

[andy97]

Originally Posted by tux

They were talking about stand alone GT4 races over the last few years but the GT4 teams were against the idea due to a lack of exposure.

I used to work with Piranha motorsport in gt4 and know a couple of drivers in this year's gt4 class well. I am convinced that they would like the chance to race for overall wins.

The Dutch manage a stand alone series.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by andy97

The Dutch managed a stand alone series.

FIFY

That one has fallen apart pretty spectacularly over the last two years. Less than ten cars in most of their stand alone rounds this year and lots of talk about the need for a new headline category in the Netherlands.

Also: There are no GT3s in the Netherlands so GT4 was the national top category... at least until Supercar Challenge went from a European series back to a Benelux only affair.

[Tim the Grey]

A few of mine from Sunday are now on Flickr...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandfish_imagining/
More should come along as I get time...

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

http://www.britishgt.com/newsitem.php?key=1904

Looks like the British have invented a good-intentioned trophy here. You never know, perhaps we could be seeing an overseas round at Jyllandsringen to commemorate Simonsen!

[andy97]

Originally Posted by andy97

I guess my point is that gt3 is growing and there may not be room for gt4. It would therefore be good to encourage gt4 as a stand alone series. There are plenty of gt4 aston martins around (in their own series); next year Ginetta g55s are allowed in to gt4 and there is already an update kit available for the 911 cup cars to be made in to gt4 spec. Add in short few of the gt4 cars from Europe (m3 and even camaros) and there could be a decent field

All in all, can't be more expensive than britcar or gt cup can it? A good option for entry level gt racing without having to worry about being lapped by the gt3 cars and a chance to shine in a stand alone race.

I see in this weeks Autosport that the AM GT4 series is to support British GT in 2014 at 4 events. As the GT3 entry has grown in 2013 and is likely to be good in 2014 perhaps this the opportunity to let the British GT4 run with Aston Martins as an experiment in these 4 races to see if a stand alone combined GT4 series could be successful.