Idea: International GT Endurance Cup

[FstrthnU]

I was just thinking of the Nurburgring 24 and the North American Endurance Championship when I realized how cool it would be to have a cup/championship/trophy linking all of the major GT endurance events in the world. This would not be a separate "series" so much as a bonus competition for teams who run in all of the events.

It would require one unified GT spec (GT3?), so it's not likely to see reality anytime soon (would obviously need to change ACO/IMSA events, also upgrade Grand-Am GT specs), but here's the calendar.

1. 24 Hours of Dubai (?)
2. 24 Hours of Daytona
3. Bathurst 12 Hour
4. 12 Hours of Sebring
5. 24 Hours of Nurburgring
6. 24 Hours of Le Mans
7. 24 Hours of Spa
8. Petit Le Mans (10 hours)

Basically, any event >6 hours would be part of the championship. Results are based off the teams who enter the cup (so a car placed 8th in GT in-race could still be 3rd in the cup). There would be a nice mix of dedicated GT races and multiclass races.

I'm not sure whether I'd let a team be able to miss one of the events and make it top-5.

This is really just a cool dream of mines.

[alexkiller8]

more than a champ seems a journey around the world... a champ like this will be too much expensive also for work teams...

[MagVanisher]

Um, you might wanna add the 24 Hours of Zolder and the Britcar 24hr Race at Silverstone, plus the 12 Hour Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race, the Hungary 12 Hour at the Hungaroring, and the Barcelona 24 Hour Race at the Circuit de Catalunya.

And yes, it might be expensive for a works team to compete all of them (except at Audi). Of course, you may want to make a manufacturers' championship instead so that the same machine like the R8 can compete all of the races and score points for the championship.

[GT3.14]

I have always thought that a series like this would be very cool. All of the events would ideally be 24 hour races to keep the calendar simple. I would not expect any cooperation from the ACO or IMSA either. A series like this is just economically impossible for anyone to compete in. Keep in mind that a GT3 spec car needs a complete engine and gearbox rebuild or replacement after 30 hours of running time if I am not mistaken. It would take millions of pounds/euros worth of spares to maintain each car for an entire season. Add in the cost of logistics and you might be better off running a P1 car in the WEC.

[adam46]

I think that the GT Open Organisars should combine with EERC(Britcar) and possibly VLN to do an endurance Series for GT2/3 cars alongside S2000/NGTC/BTC-T cars. This would be the class layout.

Class 1: GT2/GT3* cars combined by levelling GT3's to the GT2 pace.

Class 2?: Possibly there for GT4 cars.

Class 3: The class for NGTC/S2000/BTC-T cars to compete. (Maybe also Seat Supercopa cars.)

Class 4?: possibly there as an Open/Invitation class to allow GT1, DTM and Super GT/JGTC cars to compete alongside Specials like the extremely Turbo'ed Porsches from the old Belcar days. (I would want this as a fan, not sure it is that viable! I was thinking the Dutch Supercar crop could join in like last years Zolder 24.)

Class 5: Second rung for the above where it is possible to run Porsche Cup cars alongside other spec series like the Ferrari Challenge.

Class 6?: Possibly there to cater for the usual backmarker from races like the Britcar 24.

Class 7: Prototypes run either in the Open class, separatley, or in class 1 like in Britcar. The cars I am thinking of are SR2's, Aquila's, Radical's and CN cars. (see the bracket in the Open Class bit!)

* The rulebook for Class 1 would allow for Non-International homologated cars such as the Mosler MT900R and Gillet Vertigo to run like they did in the G2 class of the FIA GT days, only running properly within the class.

Calendar:
4hr Brands Hatch
24hr Nurburgring
Le Mans 3hr (24hr support race?)
4hr Monza
24hr Spa
6hr Red Bull Ring?
3hr Assen.
24hr Silverstone (Britcar 24hr) [Put back to end of October]

Note that this would be a series run under the title European Endurance Championship, hence it does not encompass the likes of Bathurst, Laguna Seca, Interlagos & Suzuka.

The intention of this would be to create a Hybrid of Blancpain Endurance Series, Belcar and the old Endurance touring car races.

[MagVanisher]

Hmm, your proposal is nice but can you give me an explanation on Class 6?

Still, if your proposal can bring it to America or Australia, will DPs and Trans-Am cars compete in Class 4 while Stock Cars and V8 Supercar compete in Class 3?

[adam46]

Class 6 would be things like Renault Clio's and Ginetta G40's, so essentially things about 6-8 seconds slower than an S2000 on the average race track length.
Regarding Trans-AM cars I would be inclined to put them in Class 4 as you said. The NASCAR's and the Aussie V8's are for more difficult because there relative pace compared to say, an S2000-Spec Chevrolet Cruze or BMW 320i, is very different from track to track. For example at Le Mans they would be streaks ahead because of the long straights that track has, but I am also inclined to think that a V8 Supercar would definitley be quicker than an S2000 at every track on the calendar. NASCAR's aren't exactley my speciality but I would say that both maybe best matched on terms of pace in Class 5.

I left Grand-AM until last as they are easily in Class 7, infact the britcar Class 1 I was reffering to has GT2/GT3 cars running alongside an Aquila and a Rapier SR2. But if you look in the regulations for Britcar they are infact a sub class within Class 1 known as LMPX which could also cater for (I imagine De-Tuned) Pre-2005 LMP2/675 cars as well as Grand-AM machines.

So essentially Class 7, which is noted to possibly be in Open Class or Class 1, owes it's insparation to Britcar's LMPX sub-category.

Now the Main classes I was thinking of at first were 1,3 & 5 but I thought I would dish up the other ideas in my mind too.

Wow, wasn't that a mouthful!

Adam.

[Dario911]

Nice idea! It would be interesting a long distance world championship for GT cars. Only great races, only great manufacturers. A real pleasure. But what about the costs???

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by FstrthnU

I realized how cool it would be to have a cup/championship/trophy linking all of the major GT endurance events in the world. This would not be a separate "series" so much as a bonus competition for teams who run in all of the events.

It would require one unified GT spec (GT3?)

1. 24 Hours of Dubai (?)
2. 24 Hours of Daytona
3. Bathurst 12 Hour
4. 12 Hours of Sebring
5. 24 Hours of Nurburgring
6. 24 Hours of Le Mans
7. 24 Hours of Spa
8. Petit Le Mans (10 hours)

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

you may want to make a manufacturers' championship instead so that the same machine like the R8 can compete all of the races and score points for the championship.

That's a very good idea. Plus, it's 3 European, 3 North American and 2 Asian races, so it doesn't really clash with the continental championships.

Originally Posted by adam46

the GT Open Organisars should combine with EERC(Britcar) and possibly VLN to do an endurance Series for GT2/3 cars alongside S2000/NGTC/BTC-T cars.

Calendar:
4hr Brands Hatch
24hr Nurburgring
Le Mans 3hr (24hr support race?)
4hr Monza
24hr Spa
6hr Red Bull Ring?
3hr Assen.
24hr Silverstone (Britcar 24hr) [Put back to end of October]

Note that this would be a series run under the title European Endurance Championship, hence it does not encompass the likes of Bathurst, Laguna Seca, Interlagos & Suzuka.

That sounds like the Blancpain GT Endurance Series, except for the touring car classes.

[adam46]

^To an extent that is what I was aiming for but with factors from series with more open regulations like Dutch Supercars and the Belcar series and also the old ETCC with the endurance format for Touring Cars.

Looking back at the calendar I think I would change it now: Instead of 4 Hours of Brands Hatch I would recreate an old classic; Brands Hatch 1000KM!

[adam46]

Hi,
I just thought I would put up the calendar's for versions of my previous series idea in other continents and areas.

American Endurance Series:

Daytona 24hrs
Sebring (either 3 hour support race or the 12 hour main event!)
Interlagos 500KM
Road America 4hr
Montreal 6hr
Watkins Glen 3hr
Petit Le Mans or 4 Hour support for it at Road Atlanta
Laguna Seca 24hr (Midnight Corkscrew Photos! )

Asian Endurance Series.

Dubai 24hr
Fuji 500KM
Autopolis 3hr
TI Aida 6hr
Twin Ring Motegi 4hr
Shanghi 6hr
Bahrain 3hr
Suzuka 24hr

For this one I would organise a special Non-Championhsip round at the Guia Circuit, Macau.

The race would be split into three groups:

Group 1: Classes 1,4, & 7
Group 2: Classes 2 & 5
Group 3: Classes 3 & 6

Each group would get 1 hour.

Australian Endurance Series:

Bathurst 12hr
Adelaide 3hr
Albert Park/Melbourne 2hr (F1 support)
Bargabello 2hr
Calder Park 24hr
Eastern Creek 4hr
Surfers Paradise 2hr (Possibly in Macau format?)
Phillip Island 24hr

African-Indian Endurance Series.

Kyalami 3hr
Morroco WTCC street circuit 1hr each (Macau format)
Killarney 2hr
Phakisa Raceway 4hr (Does it still exist?)
Buddh International Circuit 24hr
Kylami 24hr


In addition to these: At either the first round of a new VLN season or the closing round of the season that pre-dated it therew would be a 6hr World Final race would take palce at the Nurburgring. This would be where teams from all the championships can race and the best 40 from each championships (presuming there are 40, which I would doubt with some) recieve the entry slots to race.

I am going to end this here before I get too serious!

[alexkiller8]

almost all teams have serious difficulties to run in their national gt champ with sprint races... this kind of champ is pure utopy or science fiction... won't be enough even the budget of a f1 top team.
The smartest thing to get real a thing like that is to make a sort of endurance championship as happens with endurance superbike/supersport competitions; a lot of indipendent endurance races that form a "virtual" endurance championship.
To make an example, races like 24H of nurburgring, 12H of bathurst, 24H of dubai will remain single and indipendent events, but with a point system that shares all these races...
it's hard to explain, maybe i wrote some words that make a messy of my concept.

[aneesh99]

I don't see why it's so unrealistic when manufacturers have been so willing to splash on going WEC GTE racing, and piling in the R&D for GT3.

[FstrthnU]

Originally Posted by alexkiller8

almost all teams have serious difficulties to run in their national gt champ with sprint races... this kind of champ is pure utopy or science fiction... won't be enough even the budget of a f1 top team.
The smartest thing to get real a thing like that is to make a sort of endurance championship as happens with endurance superbike/supersport competitions; a lot of indipendent endurance races that form a "virtual" endurance championship.
To make an example, races like 24H of nurburgring, 12H of bathurst, 24H of dubai will remain single and indipendent events, but with a point system that shares all these races...
it's hard to explain, maybe i wrote some words that make a messy of my concept.

That was exactly what I was thinking when I made the thread, not have it stand alone but just be a special cup for those who participate in all of them

[alexkiller8]

yes, but also like this is hard to realize...
trust, if in the future bes will host 8 races with the current number of cars and team involved (maybe someone more in pro-cup like the schubert bmw motorsport backed, af corse with a all pro line-up and manthey at example) and maybe with a round of 8 outside europe will be already an amazing result! will be the closest thing to the fia gt 97/98 era.

[Speed-King]

How about just introducing a world ranking for sportscar drivers like there is in tennis or golf?

[Spyderman]

Personally; I think that sportcar racing should mainly be about the cars and the teams/manufacturer. Leave the (over) glorification of the driver to F1. Again - Just a personal preference.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Spyderman

sportcar racing should mainly be about the cars and the teams/manufacturer

I totally agree... except that I'd say that about endurance racing, not sports car racing in general. So, I'm aganst having drivers championships in the WEC, but I'm fine with them being the major prizes in GT1.

[MagVanisher]

Say, adam46... Regarding the endurance championship across continents, why don't you make it as a second divisions while the selected rounds across the globe will be contested as a first division championship, but it retains the classes on both divisions.

[adam46]

So when you say that do you mean like if the Bathurst 12hr round was included in the World Series it would be a joint Australian/World GT Endurance Series like the WEC & ALMS did at Sebring this year... If so I like that idea!