2010 FIA GT2

[dxk1]

Considering how interesting GT2 will be this year in both ALMS and LMS, it is certainly a shame that SRO fouled it up for FIA-GT. I can't believe the Spa 24 hours is being left to rot. The Vitaphone/Phoenix and Vitaphone/PeKa/SRT clashes of the last few years will be hard to recreate with the planned crop of participants for this years race. My only hope is that lots of good GT2 teams show up to have some fun.

DK

[Mike Sweeney]

Originally Posted by dxk1

Considering how interesting GT2 will be this year in both ALMS and LMS, it is certainly a shame that SRO fouled it up for FIA-GT. I can't believe the Spa 24 hours is being left to rot. The Vitaphone/Phoenix and Vitaphone/PeKa/SRT clashes of the last few years will be hard to recreate with the planned crop of participants for this years race. My only hope is that lots of good GT2 teams show up to have some fun.

DK

Spa 24 this year was never going to be for anything more than GT2/GT3 anyway so there wasn't much chance of any MC12 v CR6 battles...hopefully we'll see Audi, BMW against Ferrari and Porsche yet outside of LM..

[old man]

Originally Posted by Mike Sweeney

Spa 24 this year was never going to be for anything more than GT2/GT3 anyway so there wasn't much chance of any MC12 v CR6 battles...hopefully we'll see Audi, BMW against Ferrari and Porsche yet outside of LM..

My bet is that a GT3 will win that race, probably the Audi

Excellent piece by Graham G on DSC

[KA]

Originally Posted by JAG

Ratels vision isn't worthy of World Championship status, it's a fudge to tick boxes to get the FIA onboard.

In and of itself a GT1 series isn't the worst thing in the world, the problems come when this class is shoehorned into current ACO series against the wishes of manufactuer's, who pump money into these series, as well as putting cars on the grid.

If I was the ACO, how tempting would it be to respond to this turn of events by announcing the offer of a guaranteed 2011 LM entry for this year's GT Open champions...?

I do wonder why the ACO kept GT1 on board this year- maybe to give themselves an opportunity to see Ratel's 'Brave New World' at first hand in the context of an ACO endurance race, rather than a 1-hour sprint, to help them decide whether they want anything further to do with it, or whether the future of ACO GT racing will be purely GT2-based....

Could this spell the demise of GT2 altogether in FIA form?- Ratel might think he can revive the class for 2011, but as Graham suggests in the excellent DSC piece, if the competitors have jumped ship this year for LMS and GT Open, will he be able to get them back?

If GT1 at Le Mans this year is a bust, with a handful of finishers well down the field, could we end up with a total split in GT racing in Europe beyond 2011, with Ratel and the FIA going the GT1 and GT3/4 route, while the ACO and Le Mans opt for a GT2-based class, maybe with GT Open aligning themselves more with the ACO as a means of qualifying for a LM entry?

[KA]

Originally Posted by Mike Sweeney

Spa 24 this year was never going to be for anything more than GT2/GT3 anyway so there wasn't much chance of any MC12 v CR6 battles...hopefully we'll see Audi, BMW against Ferrari and Porsche yet outside of LM..

The Spa organisers must be eyeing this situation nervously- they could be staring down the barrel of a future running essentially a Belgian national event with a gridful of gentleman amateurs in GT3/4 cars....No disrespect to that, but Spa ought to be one of the major dates of the season, and a low-profile GT3/4 grid won't give them that...

[Dead-Eye]

Originally Posted by KA

The Spa organisers must be eyeing this situation nervously- they could be staring down the barrel of a future running essentially a Belgian national event with a gridful of gentleman amateurs in GT3/4 cars....No disrespect to that, but Spa ought to be one of the major dates of the season, and a low-profile GT3/4 grid won't give them that...

Are the Spa organisers directly affiliated with the SRO? If not, if might make sense to ask GT Open if they're interested in having a 24h on the schedule

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Dead-Eye

Are the Spa organisers directly affiliated with the SRO? If not, if might make sense to ask GT Open if they're interested in having a 24h on the schedule

GT Open has sprint races, so the cars are quite different from Euro LMS ones. it could only work if there was a big gap in GT Open's calendar to let the teams switch the setup, install stronger parts, etc.

Another idea could be that the ACO took the 24 Hours of Spa as a "revenge race" after the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the same non-championship status. Or it could partner with other 8-12 hour GT2 / GT3 / GT4 races across Europe at a less professional level than the Euro LMS (say GT Open).

[Mike Sweeney]

Originally Posted by KA

The Spa organisers must be eyeing this situation nervously- they could be staring down the barrel of a future running essentially a Belgian national event with a gridful of gentleman amateurs in GT3/4 cars....No disrespect to that, but Spa ought to be one of the major dates of the season, and a low-profile GT3/4 grid won't give them that...

I'd be very surprised if the 24h Spa turns out that way...suspect there'll be an influx of LMS/GT Open/VLN cars, including the usual suspects like BMS, Larbre, CRS, IMSA, etc. Audi are likely to be looking for an outright win following last years effort, ditto Ferrari and Porsche who'll both want to ensure a win is achievable. That means factory support including drivers.

As a consequence, I'd expect to see large gaps instead of drivers names on entry lists until very late in the day.

Hopefully...

[Tim the Grey]

If worked right, they could attract some of the 'out of date' GT1 cars? There are loads of them around, and nowhere to race...
Given the current state of GT3, I'd happily watch them for 24 hours, if they were certain to keep going! Fast, close racing, BIG fields.
I'd love Spa to become the GT 24 hours, with GT1/2/3/4 all running together. Could make for a fascinating race.

[gwyllion]

I don't know what to make of this:

Finally, the question of the GT2 class was discussed. A new project regarding this category will be announced at Spa but Stephane Ratel declined to say more. However, after a question whether he perhaps thinks of the environmental aspect to attract manufacturers, he just said "we will do something, in the long term we have more or less a project of hybrid cars for the GT2 class."

translated from http://pitlane-vision.com/index.php?...tte&Itemid=119

Very strange, because as far as I can tell, only Porsche seems to be interested in using hybrid technology to GT racing. Ratel has different things in mind for GT2 than the ACO who is in favor of cost saving.

[JAG]

I personally believe the P1 hybrid rules will be applied to GTE when the new regulations come into froce in 2014.

Regulations for GT Endurance will be frozen from 2011 to 2013 as a minimum, with only a single evolution per car per year to be permitted, with the exception of new cars that will be allowed 2 evolutions per year.

I see cost savings coming in areas other than hybrid systems as these are relevant to road cars. GTE AM also takes smaller privateers out of the heat and cost of factory competition.