[FIA GT] Return of the FIA Sportscar Championship?

[billnchristy]

a new FIA SCC would be good for the older cars that no one wants to get rid of...thats what the old series seemed to be for the most part...it could be like the old grand am of europe and not a bad idea. why send old cars to pasture, just pit them against other older cars. it would be a great opener for an LMES weekend and much cheaper.

what else are you going to do with all those b2k/40s, pilbeams, lola MGs, dallaras and what not that arent really competitive anymore??

[TheNewBob]

Gud thing Ratel merged with the ACO on this subject and formed LMES - the 8 car grids of '03 would have been awfully boring in a 1000km race... from what I used to read in Autosport, the normal races weren't exactly mindblowing - it's another championship I didn't get to see, however.

[SALEEN S7R]

Lets not exaggerate too much, the FIA SCC did have 8 car grids yes, but only in the SR1 class, there was SR2 too. Much of the 2003 season IMO had some very good racing, and good cars, particulary at Spa with the appearance of the Audi and British GT cars. Donnington was also good, lack of strength in depth but there was around 8 or so cars in the SR1 field that were competitve.

[cybersdorf]

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

Lets not exaggerate too much, the FIA SCC did have 8 car grids yes, but only in the SR1 class, there was SR2 too.

Off the top of my head, grid sizes in 2003 were something like this:

Estoril - 11, with 5 SR1
Lousyring - 8, with 4 SR1
Monza - 15 (cannot recall how many SR1)
O'leben - 9 (same here)
Donington - 16, with 8 SR1
Spa - 11, with 5 or 6 SR1
Nogaro - 7, with 3 SR1
...by that time, all momentum had shifted towards the LMES.

Much of the 2003 season IMO had some very good racing, and good cars, particulary at Spa with the appearance of the Audi and British GT cars.

...which was in fact doing the exact opposite of what this thread is about: mix sportscars and GTs in a multi-class field. So, do we recreate a stand-alone FIASCC, and then allow GTs in? We have that now, don't we. The sportscar field at Spa was still only 11.

[cybersdorf]

Originally Posted by billnchristy

...it could be like the old grand am of europe

FIASCC cooperated with GA for a while, remember that? Hardly anything came of it, though.

and not a bad idea. why send old cars to pasture, just pit them against other older cars.

Is there really the potential for a pan-European series for such cars? I'm not sure there is.

it would be a great opener for an LMES weekend and much cheaper.

Is a Reynard 2KQ really that much cheaper to run than a Zytek?
LMES could perhaps do with a support series for smaller (not older!) sportscars Ã* la Radical or CN; question is, how do you accomodate them time-wise (if it is going to be an endurance format), and who would be interested to take part? there is currently no dedicated "feeder series" for the prototypes, and yet you have drivers coming into sportscar racing, from single seaters (similar level of complexity) and GTs (endurance racing experience). for the time being, is there really a pressing need to create a league system when in reality, there is still work to do to fully establish LMES as a "main event" in the minds of European race fans?

what else are you going to do with all those b2k/40s, pilbeams, lola MGs, dallaras and what not that arent really competitive anymore??

Sportscar Challenge, Interserie Endurance, perhaps Britsports or VdeV? You can run these cars in minor series, but it's not really being done - yet?

[courageous]

Originally Posted by cybersdorf

FIASCC cooperated with GA for a while, remember that? Hardly anything came of it, though.

That could be another option - DP, LMP3 (Radical/Debora and the like) & GT3.
The gap between national GT & LMES and FIA GT is growing all the time & there needs to be some middle ground.