Intercontinental GT Challenge

[one five five]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

For me ditch the invite cars and try and get 15 or so GT4's in there, that would make it more interesting and also have a decent race for both classes

They’ve tried pushing GT4 in the 12hr for years and the owners of the cars aren’t interested in looking in their mirrors for GT3 cars all day sadly

In 2018ish there was ok GT4 numbers in the race, but that dropped off quick and there was just 2 GT4’s in 2020.

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

The other cars are OK but they have no real place in an SRO event. Yes at a Bathurst event but not an SRO event for me

.

That’s fine but the Bathurst 12 Hour is not an SRO event, it’s a locally run event that SRO piggyback the IGTC onto for points.

It will never be a solely GT3/4 race as they cannot be sustained. The race would have had 23 starters this year with the invitational class, and even with them in the grid was small.

[one five five]

Originally Posted by TWRv12

Former Legend and AVL were *****in about Hindy and Shae on Full Credit to the Noise

AVL has been pushing his anti-Hindy barrow for years…… Hindy mustn’t have signed an autograph for him ten years ago or something. His yearly Hindy whinge is as pathetic as his obsession with Auto Action….. this podcast allows him to have a lacky to agree with him

He’d prefer that Australia’s international enduro have just Aussie commentary , ridiculous

[Mike E]

Originally Posted by E.B

Roland (Dane’s) View: Stop buggering up the Bathurst 12 Hour!

SRO's meddling with the sporting regulations of the Bathurst 12 Hour threatens the very future of the event, writes Roland Dane.....

https://speedcafe.com/rolands-view-s...hurst-12-hour/

No punches pulled there. Very good.

[E.B]

2025

In news for the 2025 Bathurst 12hour, and in light of talk regarding potential BMW budget cuts, its good to see the Factory backed WRT team have confirmed already a pair of WRT M4GT3's for the 2025 12 hour.

https://autoaction.com.au/2024/12/30...ck-to-bathurst

[one five five]

Grid is looking thin as a whole though, be lucky to get more than 25 starters the way it’s looking.

What happened to the Mustangs and Corvettes that were promised?

[airbusA346]

Another entry announced for Bathurst.

Pro-Am: The Bend - Porsche 992 GT3 R
- Yasser Shahin
- Sam Shahin
- TBA
- TBA

According to Porsche Motorsport Australia, the car will be ran by Manthey.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by one five five

Grid is looking thin as a whole though, be lucky to get more than 25 starters the way it’s looking.

Aren't there always lots of late announcements, so until the final entry list is out we won't know.

[one five five]

Originally Posted by deggis

Aren't there always lots of late announcements, so until the final entry list is out we won't know.

The organisers drip feed entry announcements right up until a week before the event, but from what some teams have been told the entry will be in the mid-twenties.

Which is kind of pathetic sadly, even if the quality of the front runners will be top notch

[v8supes]

What can you say? There are a lot of big endurance races now and its costs a lot of money and takes a lot of resources to ship cars around the world. If i remember correctly one of the WRT cars that competed at Macau was shipped to Bathurst immediately after the Macau event which demonstrates the amount of cars you need to have in order to compete in IGTC.

[Alan52]

16 car entry at Bathurst.
The late announcements will be driver line ups at GruppeM and WRT.Only 10 Australian GT3 cars.

[Akrapovic]

16 cars as a class is fine. 16 cars as a race is not. An evolution of this event could also include GT4 and TCR classes really.

[Alan52]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

16 cars as a class is fine. 16 cars as a race is not. An evolution of this event could also include GT4 and TCR classes really.

They tried to get GT4 cars to enter but no takers.No MARC’s either.
TCR in Australia is dead.

[one five five]

The issue is the organisers pushed GT3 so hard between particularly 2018-2020 and actively spoke of a future where it was a GT3 only race.
The lower classes were ignored and made to feel they had no future, so competitors looked elsewhere.

Since Covid the race has struggled to attract as many GT3 cars, but the lower class competitors aren’t coming back…… the GT3 focus at the expense of the rest has hurt the race when they’re needed, and we have another low grid this year as a result

How do you make lower class competitors interested in the event again? The events future has to be questioned as a GT3 race…

[Alan52]

The race’s big attraction was the overseas cars and teams that came to the event.Without them it is just an extended round of the Australian GT Championship with guest drivers.
Even if they find a way to persuade 15-20 Australian GT4 cars to take part it is still nothing like the 2015-2020 glory years.
The terminal decline of the IGTC is the big factor here.I’m pretty sure there is no solution for this or Ratel would have done it by now.

[Alan52]

Originally Posted by E.B

Roland (Dane’s) View: Stop buggering up the Bathurst 12 Hour!

SRO's meddling with the sporting regulations of the Bathurst 12 Hour threatens the very future of the event, writes Roland Dane.....

https://speedcafe.com/rolands-view-s...hurst-12-hour/

The 3 rules Roland is complaining about-the 32 lap maximum stint,the 85 second minimum pit stop and the MA interpretation of the FCY- are all shockers.Designed to change the event from a race to a Regularity.
Even worse is the 45 Minute Hero loophole rule where Am drivers can declare themselves Pros for a day and only have to do 45 minutes of driving in 12 Hours.And then stand on the podium pretending their driving actually contributed.See Habul x 2,Talbot and Schumacher.

[one five five]

Entry list could be as low as 23-24 I’m now hearing.

Watch for the organisers to now push the “quality over quantity” excuse.

The grid will be smaller than the 1000 yet run for twice as long.

Is the 12hr in trouble? Why don’t people want to enter? Why do the organisers seem to have their heads in the sand?

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by one five five

Entry list could be as low as 23-24 I’m now hearing.

Watch for the organisers to now push the “quality over quantity” excuse.

The grid will be smaller than the 1000 yet run for twice as long.

Is the 12hr in trouble? Why don’t people want to enter? Why do the organisers seem to have their heads in the sand?

Some people are blaming the Asian Le Mans Series for the lack of entries.

[flatlandsman]

Probably true, easier to get to and they are probably paying for people to come or at least offering travel deals.

Plus you will get people thinking they can win and get LM entries, huge for some.

I used to love Bathrust but it has almost fallen off a cliff in the last few years. Too close to Daytona and other stuff, always the case for sure.