[FIA GT] Fia-gt 2004

[Fab]

I thought it was appropriate to open a special thread for the FIA-GT championship, that lots of us are following each year. SaleenS7R (the TT's member) should be one of the main entrants and promoteurs !

I read on the GT-Eins site that Stéphane Ratel signed for a race in China at the end of the championship, hoping for even two races in 2005, and a Chinese pilot too...

Roll on FIA-GT !

[Duffacus]

It should be another good one this season, new cars going against two different types of Ferrari with Lister still hanging in there. Saleens will be there again with one or two Chrysler Vipers(?). Does anyone know whats happening with the Zwann's and Roos Vipers? And don't forget, Wieth's Ferrari too

[Fab]

If someone has the courage to post the field, we're happy to welcome it !

[The Badger]

I did hear a romour about Scorp awhile back , something about an MG EX257 although I dont see any available . Any news on them ?

[Duffacus]

Well i know Wieth are building a new Ferrari to race in FIAGT and racing their old one in the French GT Championship and Lister have just about finalised one car but want to run two again. There is the Saleens from RML and JMB will be there with Ferrari 575's and BMS with 550's. Will we see any Zondas? Together we could probably come up with quite a good entry field!

[FIRE]

The pre-season attention for FIAGT 2004 is overshadowd by LMES.

[SALEEN S7R]

I will have a guess at a possible grid, but as I said these are guessess and are not fact, here is a list of possible entrants, but of course knowing how many cars each team will field is mainly guess work, heres a list of what I think is possible, please bear in mind the list will be objective.

GT:

2 x Lister Storms, Lister Racing
2 x Lister Storms, Creation Autosportif
2 x Ferrari 550s, BMS Scuderia Italia
2 x Saleen S7R's, Ray Mallock Limited
2 x Saleen S7R's, Konrad Motorsport
1 x Ferrari 550, Care Racing
2 x Ferrari 575's, JMB Racing
2 x Pagani Zonda's, Carsport Holland/Force One
1 x Saleen S7R, Graham Nash Motorsport
2 x Ferrari 550's, Weith Racing
2 x Lambourgini Murcielago's, Reiter Engineering
2 x Maserati MCC, Maserati (selected events)
NGT:

2 x Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, Freisinger Motorsport
3 x Ferrari 360 GTC, TMC
2 x Ferrari 360 GTC, JMB Racing
2 x Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, Emka Racing
2 x Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, Eurotech Racing
2 x Ferrari 360 GTC, MenX Motorsport
2 x Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, RWS Motorsport
2 x Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, Cirtek Motorsport
1 x Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, Proton Competition

[FIRE]

1 x Chrysler Viper, Zwaans Racing [not confirmed]

[E46]

Eurotech is out of FIA GT, they will do LMES and British GT.

[Duffacus]

I think just one Creation Autosportif Lister, the other in British GT?

[Duffacus]

We might also see the Gillet in N-GT if we are lucky, but it needs FIA homologation.

[KA]

Originally posted by E46
Eurotech is out of FIA GT, they will do LMES and British GT.

Think I've read something about them possibly doing the UK rounds of FIA GT as well- from memory one of their major sponsors, John Guest sponsored the Donington FIA GT meeting last year, so if that continues, I'd expect Eurotech may at least one car at that race, if nowhere else...

[SALEEN S7R]

Also expect Eurotech at the Spa 24hrs, at least with a 1 car entry.

[Duffacus]

Report about Wieth on DSC and it only looks like it will be one new Ferrari 550 with Kaufmann at the wheel and another driver - maybe Vittorio Zoboli.

[JAG]

Lister will run one GTS car. They are concentrating on there LMP1 car.

Whats the betting we will se customer Lister LMP1s in 2005?

[jhansen]

I thought I read on this forum that Lister were going to run British GT, LMES and LeMans.

[Duffacus]

Brit GT - 1 confirmed
FIAGT - 1 all but confirmed, another one possibly on the way
LMES - 1 Lister Prototype
LeMans - 1 Lister Prototype

Apologies if I'm wrong

[jhansen]

Here's a quote from the lister site:

"British GT - we have confirmed that Jamie and Nicolaus will compete but we also have plans to run a second Storm and are currently looking for one driver for this programme.

FIA GT – plans are finalizing for one car in this Championship but we fully intend to run two cars again."

[Fab]

Saleen, thank you for the provisionnal grid.

Let's use this thread for FIA-GT topics, I'll merge the threads if necessary, don't hesitate to warn me.

[Duffacus]

DAMS looks more certain to be entering 550's now instead of Murcielagos.

[Fab]

Originally posted by Duffacus
DAMS looks more certain to be entering 550's now instead of Murcielagos.

Definitely.

[The Badger]

I wonder over the course of the season how will the 550 will fare against the 575 GTC ? Thats going to be interesting !!!

[SALEEN S7R]

http://www.crash.net/uk/en/news_view...id=8&nid=84162

Wolfgang Kaufman is now confirmed at Weith Racing. Now the team are looking for 1 or 2 drivers to partner him for the FIA GT championship. Vittorio Zobli is one of the favourties though.

Incidently the team has announced that they have also signed Richard Balandras and Thierry Spec for their FFSA assault.

[The Badger]

Freisinger have been confirmed as a work's supported team for the season . There's going to be some spark's flying just like last year !!! Ortelli/Collard and Luhr/Maassan are the rumour's kicking around .

[SALEEN S7R]

Autosport Magazine also reports that the works TVR backed Racesports Sailsbury team could enter a pair of TVR 400r's in this years FIA GT championship, alongside its attack on the LMES.

Autosport also reports that new Ferrari team GPC squadra corse will run a pair of Ferrari 575's in this years FIA GT championship. The squad has been set up by former JMB central figure Giampaolo Coppi, the team will be run from Voghera, 50 miles south of Milan. Coppi has promised a professional set-up to rival any series. "After many years of working closely with JMB, we decided to go our own way" said Coppi. "We had differnt ideas of which way to go in the future."

The GPC team has yet to decide on who will race for the team but favourites include, Fabio Babini, Christian Pescatori, Fabrizo De Simone and Phillip Peter who were all placed with JMB by Coppi's company. GPC is expected to be Pirelli's favourite team in FIA GT this year. Pirelli Motorsport boss Paul Hembrey said: "This will clearly be a top operation and one of our main teams in FIA GT's."

So good news there for FIA GT all round, both the LMES and FIA GT are looking strong, stronger than ever actually if u ask me with no teams leaving the series it would seem and new teams coming into the series all the time. Should have a great year of FIA GT and LMES, not to mention the ALMS and national championships.