ADAC GT Masters 2011

[Coach Ep]

Provisional calender
25/04 Oschersleben
22/05 Hockenheim
05/06 Zolder (Belgium)
10/07 Nürburgring
07/08 Red Bull Ring (Austria, former A1 Ring)
21/08 Lausitzring
18/09 Assen (Holland)
02/10 Sachsenring

according to gtmasters.org

[Birddog07]

Sounds like a pretty to calendar to me. Can't wait for the RB Ring.

[Dauer 962]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Provisional calender
25/04 Oschersleben
22/05 Hockenheim
05/06 Zolder (Belgium)
10/07 Nürburgring
07/08 Red Bull Ring (Austria, former A1 Ring)
21/08 Lausitzring
18/09 Assen (Holland)
02/10 Sachsenring

according to gtmasters.org

Plus LIVE-TV-coverage in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, 90 minutes of each race in free-TV

[Speed-King]

Which might just be the best TV-package of any sportscar series in the world... I have no idea about Super GT's TV-package, so I might not know what I am talking about.

[NaBUru38]

Updated calendar:

25.04 - Oschersleben
15.05 - Sachsenring
12.06 - Zolder
10.07 - Nürburgring
14.08 - Red Bull Ring
04.09 - Lausitzring
18.09 - Assen
02.10 - Hockenheim

Sachensring, Assen and Hockenheim clash with VLN races.

[Speed-King]

Unless Sachsenring is with GT1, I expect to see that one change, as they said that they'd avoid clashes with VLN before the 24 hour race... and then, the VLN-calender isn't official as of now, either.

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Which might just be the best TV-package of any sportscar series in the world...

Indeed, even though the ratings sucked. But I guess the fact that Mercedes is expected to jon the series big time means there's someone to pay the bill.

I didn't follow the GTMasters much before this season but the neat TV-Coverage really makes the difference.

I like the new calendar, good to see that we don't do one track twice as it was this year. Two rounds at Oschersleben was really a bit much. The only thing missing is a race at the Norisring..

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Updated calendar:

25.04 - Oschersleben
15.05 - Sachsenring
12.06 - Zolder
10.07 - Nürburgring
14.08 - Red Bull Ring
04.09 - Lausitzring
18.09 - Assen
02.10 - Hockenheim

Sachensring, Assen and Hockenheim clash with VLN races.

And Zolder now clashes with Le Mans 24H.....

[Dauer 962]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Indeed, even though the ratings sucked.

Says who?

In fact, both the ADAC and the tv station kabel eins were very pleased with the ratings.

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by Dauer 962

Says who?

The marketshare.

While the ratings might be respectable from a motorsports point of view, they weren't from a general perspective.

The season finale was watched by 350.000 people, the races always got around 3,5-4% market share, Kabel 1 is used to about 7% in that timeslot.

Every rerun of a sitcom or whatnot in that timeslot would have gotten better ratings for Kabel1 with much less cost and effort attached compared to a live sports broadcast.

That's why I think they keep showing the races as long as someone pays the bill, the ratings itself aren't good enough to justify the effort, especially since it's no sports station but rather a normal entertainment channel.

[Speed-King]

It's not all about the absolute ratings, though.

For example, "Stromberg" (a German "The Office"-clone) doesn't have great ratings either, but it does a lot for the TV-station's image, in that case Pro7.

Similarly, I'd rarely watch Kabel 1 outside of some classic movies they have on from time to time, but the GT-Masters broadcast made me watch the so-stupid-that-it's-actually-awesome reality-TV-show Heli-Loggers...

Think of it as a "loss leader" - it might not be profitable in itself, but it attracts customers you'd have a hard time reaching otherwise.

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Which might just be the best TV-package of any sportscar series in the world... I have no idea about Super GT's TV-package, so I might not know what I am talking about.

$10 says it will be on Speed2 with Andrew Marriott doing the call in English.

[Birddog07]

I'd think the German commentating would be more interesting than anything Speed can come up with. That would be sweet if Speed had it though, get some American interest in GT3 for maybe the introduction of a NA GT3 series.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Birddog07

I'd think the German commentating would be more interesting than anything Speed can come up with.

Rainer Braun (the German announcer) is quite the legend, but he's getting old and somewhat confused on occassion, which makes his commentary either really fun or rather annoying to listen to always depending on your personal point of view.

[Birddog07]

Well I can't understand a lick of German, but the commentary just has more energy than some boring American guy fom Speed. Same concept with SuperGT and it's enthusiastic Japanese commentators. Suppose I'ved picked up alittle German from watching the GT Masters, boxundstopen .

[cmk]

He's pretty nuts even given my limited understanding of spoken German, and he confuses Sebastian Asch and Luca Ludwig for their fathers all the time!

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by cmk

He's pretty nuts even given my limited understanding of spoken German, and he confuses Sebastian Asch and Luca Ludwig for their fathers all the time!

That's because he spent most of his career as an announcer talking about their fathers, quite understandable for me. The guy is just a legend..

He's certainly not the best when it comes to telling what's going on on track but he's full of interesting anecdotes and it's just fun to watch.

[Speed-King]

Goodbye Ascari, Hello Lambo!

[Acid09]

Too bad, another exotic car gone.

That's kind of a flaw of the whole GT3 concept, there are lots of interesting cars but still people end up entering Audis, BMWs or Porsches...same with the VLN. It's always same-old, same-old...

I`d like to see more Vipers, Ferraris, maybe a Morgan.. wasn't the GT3 formula designed to make all these cars competitive?

[Birddog07]

Well the Audis, BMWs, Porsches, Mercs all are factory mass produced, so that's a sense of better reliability and more spare parts. They can do all the performance balancing, but those cars are one of the best choices I'd say for those reasons. Next I'd say come the Reiters, Callaways, and Matechs.

I'd rather see huge variety as much as the next guy, I absolutley loved the Viper and hope it returns. Loved the Ascari too, wish they didn't get rid of it. Atleast we got one more car on the grid.

[Speed-King]

Actually, the Viper will return in GT-Masters next year. Mintgen Motorsports have developed an upgrade-kit and will field two cars next year, and hope to sell some kits to other teams.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Goodbye Ascari, Hello Lambo!

It's a shame there are not a few frontrunning Ferrari's.

[Speed-King]

Well, Freddy Kremer who raced in the series fulltime in 09 wants to come back next year with a Ferrari, but that'd be hardly a frontrunner against the likes of Abt, Reiter or Mühlner - not to speak of the Mercs of Black Falcon, who'll surely get a lot of love from AMG.

[Sirius Motorspo]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Actually, the Viper will return in GT-Masters next year. Mintgen Motorsports have developed an upgrade-kit and will field two cars next year, and hope to sell some kits to other teams.

This is interesting..

Depending on the price for the update and what it consists of, that means that you could go out on monday and buy 2 outdated Vipers for around 80.000 EUR (..pending final negotiations..) a piece and become very competitive "Out-Of-The-Box" in GT Masters and VLN without spending a fortune if you are a newcomer team with ambitions to take on some of the more established names such as Phoenix, Callaway or Manthey.

3 drivers a car each bringing 100.000 EUR should get you through GT Masters with more than decent result.

Then add 4 drivers a car each bringing 50.000 to complete the VLN series(including 24H)

..That could be a fairly decent business and let´s not forget all the fun it would bring ...

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Sirius Motorspo

3 drivers a car each bringing 100.000 EUR should get you through GT Masters with more than decent result.

Then add 4 drivers a car each bringing 50.000 to complete the VLN series(including 24H)
.

GT-Masters is one hour races only, so you can only have two drivers per car...

Similarly with the usual length of stints for the GT3-cars on the Nordschleife, it makes no sense to run 4 drivers in the regular VLN-races as you would have to seriously compromise your strategy to give all of them the same driving time.