Intercontinental GT Challenge

[Don Vito]

Originally Posted by Anyopenroad

I am very surprised that SRO have persisted with the Kyalami race. I can’t see how it was ever going to have a worthy field in pandemic times.

Talkin' bout SA I recently notice an old notification to Finnish racing license holders. Any event held in SA was out of limits for any license holder. And in addition to that, a license holder must make sure that in an event elsewhere there would be no South African competitors... Any breach of these orders would result to cancelling the license for several years. That was back in 1988.

[Bcarr6]

At least what it lacks in numbers it makes up in quality.

Its a shame Mercedes pulled its cars, but I will be watching the race for Bentleys factory swan song, and the track last year was fantastic, we only need a handful of serious pro cars as we do to make a race.

It probably wont be quite as action packed as last year, but it was always obvious this would be the most affected by covid out of the whole IGTC calendar.

I hope it survives this quiet year and comes back stronger in 21, as an african race really does compliment the IGTC calendar.

[Bcarr6]

Speaking of the calendar, it's nearly offseason right?! So time for some hypothetical fun!

I still think we missing a few races from the calendar, a few little inserts would make it pretty awesome.

I'd love to a central or south American race, while there is little in the way of GT3's south of the US, a grid of them knocking around Interlagos or Mexico City circuit for 6-7 hours would probably be pretty fun.

I always enjoy the Gulf 12 too, and imagine the inclusion of that into the IGTC ruleset would be pretty sharp. The 2 6hr elements make it different at least!

FEB - Bathurst 12 Hours
MAR - Interlagos or Mexico City 7 Hours
JUL - Spa 24 Hours
AUG - Suzuka 10 Hours
SEPT - Indy 8 Hours
NOV - Kyalami 9 Hours
DEC - Gulf 12 Hours

[bludvl_x19]

There will be room in the calendar next year for something different in February, as the Bathurst 12 hour won't run.

[Racing Harz]

Originally Posted by bludvl_x19

There will be room in the calendar next year for something different in February, as the Bathurst 12 hour won't run.

The season starts in July.
http://gt-place.com/2020/10/23/inter...-praesentiert/

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by bludvl_x19

There will be room in the calendar next year for something different in February, as the Bathurst 12 hour won't run.

Yes, they have already announced the 2021 calendar minus Bathurst, with no other changes. The above is just a hypothetical

[WyldStallion]

In the first Kyalami practice session, the cars were less than a second apart from 1st through last place (12th). It will be close. Hope the drivers are smart and don't crash into each other in the first 2/3rd of the race especially. Wait till the night for that. I think the first 6 hours are in the daytime.

[KA]

Originally Posted by Don Vito

Talkin' bout SA I recently notice an old notification to Finnish racing license holders. Any event held in SA was out of limits for any license holder. And in addition to that, a license holder must make sure that in an event elsewhere there would be no South African competitors... Any breach of these orders would result to cancelling the license for several years. That was back in 1988.

A bit off-topic, but France did something similar the same year, putting an embargo on races in SA for French licence holders - At the end of the year the entry of the Kyalami non-championship Group C race featured several little-known drivers on US licences with French-sounding pseudonyms, such as "Claude Quentin". Coincidentally, several regular French Group C faces of the period just happened to be on holiday in SA that weekend... Apparently the only one not to participate in this little charade was Bob Wollek, who appeared as himself

[Bcarr6]

Kyalami really does remind me of Bathurst in parts. Really fantastic for GT3 racing

[gert]

Bortolotti leaves Audi after only 1 season
https://www.endurance-info.com/fr/mi...te-audi-sport/

[Akrapovic]

Brilliant circuit, surprisingly good race for 12 cars. Disappointing ending in biblical weather.

Felt the interviews with the BMW drivers at the end were a bit...poor, given how they won. But whatever. Roll on 2021, even if we have no Bathurst.

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Brilliant circuit, surprisingly good race for 12 cars. Disappointing ending in biblical weather.

Felt the interviews with the BMW drivers at the end were a bit...poor, given how they won. But whatever. Roll on 2021, even if we have no Bathurst.

The only consolation to that is that the new GTWC Australia is confirmed as running a pair of races there in April, so let’s hope for good coverage and a nice grid! Won’t be the 12Hr but best we will get!

[WyldStallion]

The Kyalami race was quite good to watch during the daylight part. Never get tired of the Audi engine sound. Glad that they ran the race with more day time. I think it was not dark until 1 hour 30 minutes left. In 2019 it was dark with 3 hours to go.

Was cheering for the Acura to win. Stinks what happened to it at night time. For such a small grid, I was surprised how much the first 2 and half hours was littered with Safety car time. Settled down after that and did not rear its ugly head.

This race shows that these enduro races can have 20-30 GT3 cars and be just fine. With that number, Indy 8H could go to GT3 only. 12 was too few but they did a great job getting this thing off. Spa 24 should be less than 40 cars in future and teams should need to qualify for it based on GTWC Europe performances and ICGT entrants of course. Guarantee at least 1 entry for each manufacturer though. Hope Acura steps up their effort in ICGT. Only saw multiple NSX's at Indy. As for Kyalami, SRO should be proud of this one.

[tux]

Originally Posted by gert

Bortolotti leaves Audi after only 1 season
https://www.endurance-info.com/fr/mi...te-audi-sport/

Where do you think Bortolotti goes to? Maybe back to GRT? Maybe Ferrari? Im sure they'd love another quick Italian. Im intrigued.

[gert]

Originally Posted by tux

Where do you think Bortolotti goes to? Maybe back to GRT? Maybe Ferrari? Im sure they'd love another quick Italian. Im intrigued.

Back to Lamborghini in any case

https://www.endurance-info.com/fr/hu...tti-de-retour/

[NaBUru38]

The 2021 GT World Challenge manufacturers’ championship will have 7 competitors: Audi, BMW, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren.


https://www.gt-world-challenge.com/n...red%20by%20AWS

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

The 2021 GT World Challenge manufacturers’ championship will have 7 competitors: Audi, BMW, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren.


https://www.gt-world-challenge.com/n...red%20by%20AWS

Great to see Mclaren getting involved as well as all the usual players involved.

This is for the Global GT World Challenge Championship though, not the Intercontinental GT Challenge, which is the combination of Spa, Suzuka, Kyalami and Indy.

[Mike E]

2021 series reduced to three rounds. Spa in July, Indy in October and Kyalami in December.

Personally, I would be quite surprised to see Kyalami happen, but hopefully it goes ahead and with a bigger field than last year.

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2021/0...nt-canned.html

[Mike E]

Frikadelli withdraw from Spa 24 due to effects of recent flooding. The health and safety of the team, their families and friends rightly takes precedence here.

It does leave 6 factory Porsche drivers with a free weekend...

Dennis Olsen
Fred Makowiecki
Patrick Pilet
Thomas Preining
Michael Christensen
Julien Andlauer

https://sportscar365.com/sro/igtc/fr...oding-impacts/

[Mike E]

Frikadelli #3 taken over by Schnabl for Spa.

https://sportscar365.com/sro/igtc/sc...sches-for-spa/

[gert]

Originally Posted by Mike E

Frikadelli #3 taken over by Schnabl for Spa.

https://sportscar365.com/sro/igtc/sc...sches-for-spa/

And Pilet replaced by Christensen.

Unless someone picks up the #13 Pilet, Preining and Andlauer will have nothing to do.

[Mike E]

Curious to see how Colapinto goes in a GT. Quite a race for his debut.

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2021/0...-24-hours.html

[J Jay]

That's now the youngest driver line-up of the race, possibly ever in SRO GT3 competition? It would be good practice for Colapinto to have a go at a 24-hour race in (relatively) less pressured surroundings before Le Mans.

WRT will have been eyeing the Silver Cup win with Hall in the car; I can't see that changing with a driver of Colapinto's speed replacing him.

[GregUK]

Originally Posted by J Jay

WRT will have been eyeing the Silver Cup win with Hall in the car;

I think WRT will be giving themselves a lot of pressure.

The team management has won the race 8 times (Vosse x1; Tassin x 4; Dieudonne x 3) but WRT hasn't won the race for 7 years.

To add to their pressure, they are currently leading pretty much every Championship they have entered in 2021.

It'll be an interesting race to watch!

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by GregUK

I think WRT will be giving themselves a lot of pressure.

The team management has won the race 8 times (Vosse x1; Tassin x 4; Dieudonne x 3) but WRT hasn't won the race for 7 years.

To add to their pressure, they are currently leading pretty much every Championship they have entered in 2021.

Apart from the glaring omission of this year's WEC LMP2 championship, with (IMO) the consistently highest-quality opposition.

In seasons past, I think WRT have put too much pressure on themselves at Spa 24 (and N24). But with the measures SRO have in place to "equalise" the field, and the number of high-quality teams taking part, I think even they will understand that it's not reasonable to expect to win even with a near-flawless performance, and the risk of trying to be flawless and not expect any errors will usually backfire.