2016 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour: 4-7 February

[peckstar]

Could being part of the new champions affect things here.

The championship is designed around supporting local team in the race as opposed to international visitors

[peckstar]

BAMBER, MCLAUGHLIN LAND BATHURST 12 HOUR DRIVE

In the Grove Porche.

Thats a pretty good line up for a Class B car

[D.R.T.]

There is a few Class A Porsches in Australia available for purchase or hire

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by peckstar

In the Grove Porche.

Cracking lineup, who wouldn't want to pedal around Bathurst with those guys?

Earl Bamber sounds like a cracking bloke, really loyal. But fancy not getting a chance to defend your 24hr title?

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

There is a few Class A Porsches in Australia available for purchase or hire

Are you suggesting that the Stephen Grove is going to move to a Class A Porche for the 12 hour?

Would be a big change for him, but he has some quality drivers if he wanted.

They were ten laps down this year, and the class winner was 8 laps down

[mayhem]

The Grove team are a bunch of good blokes, let my young fella sit in the car and showed him around last year. And probably planted a seed along the way...!

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by peckstar

Are you suggesting that the Stephen Grove is going to move to a Class A Porche for the 12 hour?

More hoping than suggesting.

With that lineup and the availability of Class A Porsches would love to see it happen.

If Porsche Australia had their head screwed on (which they dont) - you might think having the current Le Mans 24 Champion in a class A could be useful

[TCR]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

If Porsche Australia had their head screwed on (which they dont) - you might think having the current Le Mans 24 Champion in a class A could be useful

It would make sense if the Porsche was an outright contender but unfortunately it's not, even with this line up of drivers.

Will be interesting to see how the new 911 GT3 R goes though.

[Bell_End]

Originally Posted by mayhem

I don't want this to be interpreted the wrong way, because I love the 12 Hour, but I'm a little bit disappointed with the drop in OS entries this year. Is there a single reason as to why this has happened, or does each non-returner have their own reasons? Like I said, I'm not trying to muckrake here, more interested in the reasoning.
And no doubt it will be another great event in 2016, and no doubt I'll be one of the first through the gates on Thursday afternoon!

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...81#post3508881

Posted this a while ago, probably was overly harsh saying it would fizzel out/death of the event with just local teams etc etc, but last my point stands IMO.

unless we stop getting 5+ hours of s/c, the internationals won't see the benefit after the novelty wears off for them, won't take long

The novelty of running at bathurst for them will wain when they have a higher than normal chance of heading home with a container load of bits. Cost(+ potential costs of repairs)/benefit ratio is out of wack when they have big shipping expenses to factor in.


*disclaimer yeah I know racers are racers and don't think as "business like" as that, but the top GT3 teams are run as businesses.

[Reload]

Originally Posted by Bell_End

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...81#post3508881

Posted this a while ago, probably was overly harsh saying it would fizzel out/death of the event with just local teams etc etc, but last my point stands IMO.

The novelty of running at bathurst for them will wain when they have a higher than normal chance of heading home with a container load of bits. Cost(+ potential costs of repairs)/benefit ratio is out of wack when they have big shipping expenses to factor in.


*disclaimer yeah I know racers are racers and don't think as "business like" as that, but the top GT3 teams are run as businesses.

You made and make some reasonable and unreasonable points, however when you made that original post asking some questions you received feedback but obviously weren't interested in discussing it further ?

[1961]

BMW! Any chance of them warming up for 2017 with a Z4 or two?

[rich07]

Originally Posted by 1961

BMW! Any chance of them warming up for 2017 with a Z4 or two?

Doubt it, the M6 programme is in full swing now.

[1961]

Which means the debates about restricting the race to last year's cars and having a Pro-Am driver format, neither of which apply to most other major races, need to be brought up again.

Graham Goodwin's Dailysportscar report on Stephane Ratel's speech at the Bentley end of year party a few days ago mentioned there were concerns.

"As for the global aspirations of SRO, the plans for an Intercontinental GT Challenge are well known with the Spa 24 Hours, Sepang 12 Hours, Bathurst 12 Hours and the new event at CoTA, a three-hour endurance race on the bill of the Pirelli World Challenge event in March combining to give a four-race series aimed at GT3 manufacturers, though the Bathurst race’s Pro-Am format continues to cause some issues."

[racer69]

Originally Posted by 1961

though the Bathurst race’s Pro-Am format continues to cause some issues."

While i'd love to see driver line-ups free, I don't think the event is sustainable if this rule was allowed. Can many of the Australian entries support all Pro entries?

[Bell_End]

Originally Posted by Reload

You made and make some reasonable and unreasonable points, however when you made that original post asking some questions you received feedback but obviously weren't interested in discussing it further ?

Yeah true but was there a lot more to hash out? I made my point a bunch of guys responded and the discussion went on when I next visited the forum. Am I formally expected to respond to every response to a post??

My position hasn't changed and on one of my infrequent visits to this forum I saw a question that was pretty related to my old post many moons ago so thought I would just link it. Sorry if you have closed the book on my old post but it is interesting to see how many of the international teams listed in your responses are on the list last time I checked.

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by racer69

While i'd love to see driver line-ups free, I don't think the event is sustainable if this rule was allowed. Can many of the Australian entries support all Pro entries?

of course they can, they just have to be prepared to race for a class win rather than outright. Of course that would test the theory that we like class racing

[Miguel]

Originally Posted by racer69

While i'd love to see driver line-ups free, I don't think the event is sustainable if this rule was allowed. Can many of the Australian entries support all Pro entries?

If manufacturers step up and support the World Championship or whatever they call it with works support to local teams, that shouldn't be a problem, I'd think.

[rich07]

Be interested to hear Scuds views on this

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by Miguel

If manufacturers step up and support the World Championship or whatever they call it with works support to local teams, that shouldn't be a problem, I'd think.

Problem is the way I see this world championship it is really half arsed and I don't really understand the point of it. Completely different cars and drivers compete in unrelated events.... Just odd to me

[GroupCAction]

So just noticed this on the Bathurst 12hr website...

Categorisation (Seeding) for Class A Drivers

In 2016, the Bathurst 12 Hour will be using the FIA Driver Categorisation List for all Class A drivers. More information about the system can be found here. The application for a categorisation can be completed online here. As per Supplementary Regulation 2.1.6, all drivers in Class A are to complete the process no later than 30th October 2015 in order to be classified by 1st December 2015.

Interesting the new names that have popped onto the 2016 FIA Drivers Categorization List...

New or Updated Entries:-

Nathan Antunes - Silver
Michael Caruso - Silver
Grant Denyer - Silver
Taz Douglas - Silver
Dean Fiore - Silver
Lee Holdsworth - (Currently Under Evaluation)
Rick Kelly - Gold
Jack Le Brocq - Silver
Marcus Marshall - Silver
Chaz Mostert - (Currently Under Evaluation)
Richard Muscat - Silver
Ant Pedersen - Silver
Nick Percat - Silver
Klark Quinn - Silver
David Reynolds - Gold
Tim Slade - Silver
Cameron Waters - Silver
Mark Winterbottom - Gold

Why else would these guys be on the list other than running at the 12hr. Gives a good indication of who's going to be driving. The thing that grinds my gears... PRO-AM entries have to run ONE Silver/Bronze driver or Unseeded in the old lingo. Your telling me those Silver drivers above bar probably Grant Denyer are Unseeded. Get real. System is a total joke. It was floored when Ben Collins ran this year, its shaping up to be an even bigger joke next year

So Nissan can rock up with Buncombe / Kelly and have Caruso as the "Unseeded" driver... TOTALLY TOTALLY wrong !!

Entries that haven't updated/changed:-

Craig Baird - Gold
Alex Davison - Silver
Will Davison - Gold
Steven Johnson - Silver
Jono Lester - Silver
Craig Lowndes - Platinum
Scott McLaughlin - Gold
James Moffat - Gold
Jack Perkins - Silver
Steven Richards - Gold
Garth Tander - Platinum
Shane Van Gisbergen - Gold
David Wall - Silver

P.S. Sorry for the essay just thought this might interest people

[Miguel]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Problem is the way I see this world championship it is really half arsed and I don't really understand the point of it. Completely different cars and drivers compete in unrelated events.... Just odd to me

Don't worry, it's bound to get out of hand soon enough. I'm sure manufacturers will send their works teams with works drivers to all of the races between now and a couple of years so everyone can start crying about the manufacturers dominating everything again. Because what are SRO gonna do, forbid teams such as M-Sport and WRT from running multiple World Championship races? I'm sure that'll work just as well as forbidding manufacturers from running full blown works team.

Not that I dislike the current format, though, it's much like the World Drivers' Championship of the old days.

[Axeman444]

Originally Posted by GroupCAction

So just noticed this on the Bathurst 12hr website...

Categorisation (Seeding) for Class A Drivers

In 2016, the Bathurst 12 Hour will be using the FIA Driver Categorisation List for all Class A drivers. More information about the system can be found here. The application for a categorisation can be completed online here. As per Supplementary Regulation 2.1.6, all drivers in Class A are to complete the process no later than 30th October 2015 in order to be classified by 1st December 2015.

Interesting the new names that have popped onto the 2016 FIA Drivers Categorization List...

New or Updated Entries:-

Nathan Antunes - Silver
Michael Caruso - Silver
Grant Denyer - Silver
Taz Douglas - Silver
Dean Fiore - Silver
Lee Holdsworth - (Currently Under Evaluation)
Rick Kelly - Gold
Jack Le Brocq - Silver
Marcus Marshall - Silver
Chaz Mostert - (Currently Under Evaluation)
Richard Muscat - Silver
Ant Pedersen - Silver
Nick Percat - Silver
Klark Quinn - Silver
David Reynolds - Gold
Tim Slade - Silver
Cameron Waters - Silver
Mark Winterbottom - Gold

Given they are "new" names, does this mean those drivers have requested to be categorised/seeded?

[peckstar]

Chaz will not be in the 12 hour even though he is on that list. He wont be healed enough to mid feb according to his facebook

[TCR]

Anyone know how the hell James Moffat ended up being seeded Gold?

[bludvl_x19]

Originally Posted by TCR

Anyone know how the hell James Moffat ended up being seeded Gold?

These are the Gold Driver guidelines from the FIA

GOLD: amateur or professional driver in FIA international and national series satisfying at least one of
the following criteria:
• satisfies one criterion from platinum;
• has finished in the top 3 in the general classification of a secondary international singleseater
series (A1 GP, GP3, Renault V6, Superleague, Eurocup FR2.0, Firestone Indy Lights);
• has won the general classification of a regional or national single-seater series (F3, FR2.0,
Atlantic Championship until 2009 included, Euro V8 Series);
Approved by the WMSC of 20 March 2015
Approved by the WMSC of 10 July 2015
Approved by the WMSC of 30 September 2015
• has finished in the top 3 in the general classification of the Porsche Supercup / DTM / BTCC /
Super GT series or won a major national Porsche Carrera Cup;
• has finished in the top 3 in the general classification of the International V8 Supercars
Championship;
• has won a major GT series* (FIA GT, Blancpain GT Series (Pro), FIA GT1 World Championship,
FIA GT3 European Championship, ADAC GT Masters, British GT Championship) or GT category
of a major Sportscar series* (ILMC, ELMS, ALMS) with driver(s) of a lower or the same
categorisation;
• has raced in major International Series with racing wins, podiums and pole positions;
• is a driver whose performances and achievements, despite not being covered by one of the
definitions above, may be considered as Gold by the FIA