Australian GT Endurance Series (POSSIBILITIES)

[mabs_nsx]

It would be so cool if ther was an Australian GT Endurance Series.

Races:
Mount Panorama, Bathurst**** (NSW)
Adelaide Street Circuit* (SA)
Bunbury International Circuit**** (WA)
Hidden Valley Raceway* (NT)
Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit** (VIC)
Symmons Plains Raceway* (TAS)
Queensland Raceway* (QLD)
Sandown International Raceway*** (NSW)
Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit* (VIC)
Eastern Creek International Raceway** (NSW)

*=3 hour race
**=6 hour race
***=12 hour race
****=24 hour race

Cars:
Holden Monaro (Australia)
Holden Commodore (Australia)
Ford Falcon (Australia)
Ford Mustang (US)
Aston Martin Vanquish (US)
Jaguar XK (US)
Dodge Viper (US)
Chevrolet Corvette (US)
Honda NSX (Japan)
Honda S2000 (Japan)
Toyota Supra (Japan)
Toyota Celica (Japan)
Nissan Skyline (Japan)
Nissan 350 Z (Japan)
Mazda RX7 (Japan)
Mazda RX8 (Japan)
Ferrari 360 (Italy)
Ferrari 550 (Italy)
Porsche 911 (Germany)
Audi A8 (Germany?)
Porsche Carrera GT (Germany)
BMW M5 (Germany)
Lotus Sport Exige (UK?)

[Chucky]

Don't encourage him, please.

[racer69]

Commodore's and Falcon's are not Grand Touring cars.

[Falcadore]

How about we get a successful GT sprint series in place first before we get delusions of granduer?

[ff s conscience]

I think a sprint series isn't necessarily what the GT car owners want.

I think short enduro's are the go... like Brit GT..... 1 hour races, no refuelling, driver swap.

Categorise drivers into A and B grades (and C?), and handicap driver change stops according to driver pairing...

ie
B+B... straight swap.
A+B.... swap and wait X seconds,
A+A.... swap and wait XX seconds

(with mods for C drivers if nec)

Works well in UK. Very easy and releveant to just copy it here.

And absolutely no 4 seater or 2+2 derived cars allowed in GT2/3 class.

[D.R.T.]

Yes I agree, I think the championship will have more success in attracting cars and drivers by introducing longer races.

[djt46]

Check out the bathurst 24 hour thread. MPAC envisages a Sports and GT endurance series in the future, longer distance races at selected circuits leading to the B24.
Very eventually you have the Asia Pacific Endurance Championship with races in Aus, NZ, China, Japan, Malaysia.
BTW why do these sorts of threads always get posted in Touring Cars instead of Sportscars&GT????

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by djt46

BTW why do these sorts of threads always get posted in Touring Cars instead of Sportscars&GT????

The championship is trying to build itself in Australia, at the present time not many Australian people would access the GT/Sportscars. This allows many Australian posters the ease to keep up to date with the goings on in the championship.

Nothing is stopping threads in both forums.

[GTRMagic]

Because this is Australian Touring cars, and to my mind a Sportscar is a prototype...

[djt46]

that's a very constrained view of a sports car, which is in fact a sporting vehicle, predominantly having two doors and two seats but sometimes with an occassional rear seat and a roof, when it is then refered to as a GT, which means that endurance racing of this type, which is for sports cars and GT cars, belongs in the sportscars&GT section not Australian&NZ Touring Cars.
by your definition a Mazda Mx-5 is a prototype!!! i don't think so.
BTW the title of this thread is Australian GT Endurance Series, couldn't think of anything that more indicates it should be in Sportscars&GT!

[Falcadore]

djt: because Australian race fans post here rather than individual fora, heck there was a rally question here the other day.

FFS & DRT: what I meant was take baby steps before leaping in forecasting 24 hour events on circuits just as fictional as the championship suggested.

[djt46]

As you can well see I too am in Australia and i would head straight for the sportscar&GT section if that's what i wanted to discuss, perhaps a little too logical for the SuperTaxis brigade who inhabit the Touring Car section.
The only circuit that is 'fictional ' is Bunbury, an endurance championship, perhaps a little less ambitious than the one suggested above is a lot more feasible and appealing overall than a squabbling bunch of owners trying to run a SportsGT series.
Look at the experience in UK, etc

[Timu]

Hey mabs, go get yourself a copy of Grand Turismo 4

And sorry bro, Sandown is in Vic, not NSW!

Cool ideas none the less....

[Matt H]

a 6 hour racee at albert park will never happen.

[djt46]

exactly right, what's the point of debating such minutae, the concept is good and that's what deserves to be talked about.
truth is half the race venues proposed would never happen but you could put together a good series from the suggestion above.

[SALEEN S7R]

Ive been reading this thread with interest, heres my 2 cents. It would be a very good thing IMO to see a Australian GT championship, it was a big blow losing Nations cup. What is needed is a series similar to what we have here in GB IMO, that is a GT series consisting of GT2 and GT3 entries, and a Formula 3 support series to support the GT's. A porsche carerra cup or something along those lines would make a nice addition too. IMO.

What is essential however is that if a Australian GT championship does go ahead is that the series joins the rest of the world and adopts FIA/ACO regulations for GT2 and GT3 class cars, therefore they would be eligable for overseas rounds such as the Spa 24hrs for example, and teams from Europe and America could come over to Australia and race without too much hassle of having to change the cars....Im thinking of the Bathurst 24hrs in particular which may see teams from Europe and America making the long haul.

Will be interesting to see what happens, if anything. Would be nice though to have a Australian series IMO. Sportscar racing is slowly becomng more and more global at the moment and I dont see why Australia shoudnt be part of that.

[RotorFan]

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

What is essential however is that if a Australian GT championship does go ahead is that the series joins the rest of the world and adopts FIA/ACO regulations for GT2 and GT3 class cars, therefore they would be eligable for overseas rounds such as the Spa 24hrs for example, and teams from Europe and America could come over to Australia and race without too much hassle of having to change the cars....Im thinking of the Bathurst 24hrs in particular which may see teams from Europe and America making the long haul.

Absolutely. Would be nice to finally see a Saleen race in Australia too btw

Originally Posted by Falcadore

FIA GT want Phillip Island, not Bathurst.

Since when? I thought it was Linfox that wanted PI, not SRO.

[Robert Ryan]

Bathurst 24 Hour will run to GT rules as a basis

News to me that there will be a Bathurst 24hr race.It appears local companies are pulling their horns as a result of increased costs, due to fuel hikes.

[djt46]

Saleen, Couldn't agree more. I know you've looked at the other threads on the B24 race and if you've looked at the MPAC Ltd press release on that event you would see that we are talking your language.
Sports Cars /GT are going to come right back, it's a spin off of the disaffection with F1, etc - Australia needs ot be part of it.
Regs must be built around the international standard for the reasons you've stated. It's not rocket science it's just common sense.
Seems to be an attitude down here that we a re too small to do this or that and as a result we need to start fiddling with rules and the like.
Stick with the internationally recognised rules and you will succeed - at least that's our philosophy!
A B24 to the right regs will happen. we just need some less adventurous people to make a few decisions, instead of sitting on their hands!

[Raglanparade]

Id love to see a set Format.

6 hour races at every venue.

[Chucky]

I'm with Falcadore. I also enjoy their cars but they have had no involvement nor have they ever even tried to have an involvement in local motorsport.

So for that they can get

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Chucky

I'm with Falcadore. I also enjoy their cars but they have had no involvement nor have they ever even tried to have an involvement in local motorsport.

So for that they can get

To be fair, Honda dont really have a car that fits any outright classes in this country. The Integra Type R is handy in the proddies, but that Honda NSX run by Mr Palmer has very little in common with an NSX road car other than a similar silhourtte...

Honda were involved in Rallying a little while ago, with Brett Middleton and his Civic F2 car... it was a quick little home grown beast... but against the works cars from VW and the ubiquitous WRXs that blow off the small cars, it became outdated...

Should we be trying to get them to run an Accord in V8Supercar? The challenge would be to find a pushrod engine....

[Falcadore]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

To be fair, Honda dont really have a car that fits any outright classes in this country. The Integra Type R is handy in the proddies, but that Honda NSX run by Mr Palmer has very little in common with an NSX road car other than a similar silhourtte...

Honda were involved in Rallying a little while ago, with Brett Middleton and his Civic F2 car... it was a quick little home grown beast... but against the works cars from VW and the ubiquitous WRXs that blow off the small cars, it became outdated...

Should we be trying to get them to run an Accord in V8Supercar? The challenge would be to find a pushrod engine....

That may be true of 2005, but what of 1995? or 1985? or 1975? etc etc

Many manufacturers have found ways with much less of a vechicle line-up than what Honda boast.

Honda, in Australia, would rather spend the money on advertising than competition. The closest they have gotten to supporting Australian motorsport was naming rights sponsor of a foreign sourced street race event, which reportedly, was a decision made as an alternative to a Super Touring Car campaign.

Besides, when Honda join NASCAR they will have to develop a pushrod engine for that...

[v8race1]

MABS, what channel on tv do you watch the races???
I am all for the old Procar events and would prefer such over V8's, but there is next to nothing coverage that is available on free to air tv. We need a 'circus' similar to the V8's for the rest of our motorsport.

[Asa]

I am just thinking out aloud here, but if B24 becomes a round of the FIA GT Championship (same arrangement as the Spa 24hrs), with Group 2 and GT3 cars allowed in, then will that help the creation of the Australian GT series?