FIA GT3 to join the B12hr race as the leading class?!

[nafe!]

As qouted from speedcafe:


The strong growth of this year’s Australian GT Series could be rewarded in 2011 with its own marque event – the Bathurst 12 Hour.

FIA GT3 sports cars are shaping up as the lead category for next year’s Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour, with negotiations taking place between event organisers and Australian GT officials.

For the past four years, the Bathurst 12 Hour has been run for production-based cars with race entries edging towards the 40-car mark.

With 29 FIA GT3-spec cars currently in Australia, plus possible interest from European and Asian teams, the race could see a full grid of 72 cars at Bathurst.

Race Promoter James O’Brien told Speedcafe.com.au that he’s hopeful that discussions will lead to securing the sports cars for the ‘once around the clock’ race in February.

“We’ve had discussions with the category managers of Australian GT and I’m very interested in exploring the chances of them being there,” O’Brien said.

“Those sort of vehicles do a lot of endurace racing around the world and we’re keen to have an international motor racing flavour in the future.

“There’s no deadline at this stage, but I want as much lead time as possible for next year. Certainly I’d like to come out with a vehicle eligibility list by the end of April.”

Australian GT category manager Terry Little said that his core competitor base is very keen to have its own genuine local endurance event.

“We’ve obviously got a group of our competitors who are pretty keen on this sort of racing. It’s certainly of interest,” he said.

“The 12 Hour has become a pretty good event, so there’s definitely interest there. Our cars are set-up for endurance racing. They are basically built for European endurance racing, and that’s where most of the race cars come from.”

“We’re probably the only country in the world that doesn’t use the endurance race format. We’re hoping to discuss it more and take it further.”

If the event does go ahead, Little says that it would more than likely be run as a stand-alone event – not a round of the championship.

Next year’s Bathurst 12 Hour will be the fifth running of the rejuvenated event.


This is very interesting news indeed but it also leads to alot of complications.

[applecart]

Well hopefully the extra cars on the grid will make up for the loss of support categories

[rich07]

It would be nice to see happen, although in a perfect world it would be twice around the clock , but on the other hand I can't see the production racers that have raced for outright honours over the past years greeting this with open arms.

[RotorFan]

I know this won't be popular with some, but I think this is great news. Theres no reason why we can't have the best of both worlds with this - a great production car endurance race with every day cars, and a sports car class to boost the excitement!

As much as I enjoyed the B12H in previous years, I have really missed seeing sports cars race at the mountain. If they can open it up to european/american/asian GT3 cars it will be very competitive as well.

[Mixer]

Hot, I reckon this will be great!

[Chatters]

A full grid of 72 cars? I thought the longest the grid ever went to was roughly 55...?

[Belly13]

It will be interesting to see the class structure, as well as the opinions from the participants from this year's race. Sports Cars and Production Cars raced without major incident in the 24 Hour races as well as the old 3-Hour Showroom Showdown, and the older 12 Hour races.
I think if J.O'Brien goes ahead with this, spectator interest/attendance will increase dramatically. However, I think production car entrants will decrease just as quickly. I know for a fact that when this rumour was doing the rounds at the event last month, a lot of drivers said they wouldn't be back - including Garry Holt and Jim Hunter.

[rich07]

Originally Posted by RotorFan

As much as I enjoyed the B12H in previous years, I have really missed seeing sports cars race at the mountain. If they can open it up to european/american/asian GT3 cars it will be very competitive as well.

If the top class was run to FIA GT3 regs, we could get some Asian teams and possibly some Europeans team, it would be nice to see Martin Short back, I think he would be more receptive to coming back now that there is a internationally recognised set of rules in place. With that in mind you could get a lot of European teams down here.

In the absence of FIA GT, I really hope this happens.

[Juarez Jed]

Well there was an article in last Sundays paper that Events NSW have $29M to spend and among the events it said they were after were the MotoGP, World Superbikes, a Goodwood Festival type event and Le Mans style endurance racing.
I guess this is what they meant about the Lemans type racing , seeing as they passed on the chance to have the FIA GTs at the Creek ?

[davo.]

I could also imagine many of the production car teams not entering, especially when some of the entries from the past B12 hours are from competitors who race a GT3 car in the GT Championship including,

Peter Hill Evo X, Kondouris Evo 9, Quinn Evo 9, Alford HSV's and drivers such as Davis Wall, Paul Freestone, Max Twigg and Mark Eddy who raced for other teams.

As well many of the production car teams will potentially lose the star drivers to GT3 cars, such as the current V8 drivers, the likes of John Bowe and Alan Simonsen etc.

I wonder whether they will reduce the amount of production car classes, the speed difference will be huge between say a Porsche 997 and a Toyota Yaris, basically a minute per lap and around 100 km/h difference down conrod.

I wonder what they would do about tyres, ie slicks for all classes.

I do like the idea, i just wonder how they will do it to please both parties, thats all.

[cmk]

It would be lovely to see an event like this which attracted the best and brightest from Europe, but I'm sure the fact that GT3 is largely privateer-supported will somewhat mitigate that possibility. In the end, Australia is going to be a long way to go for a lot of European teams. I'd love it to be like the great Supertouring dustups that first introduced me to Bathurst on Speedvision over a decade ago, but the money isn't there...

[Juarez Jed]

I don't think they would be expecting a big turnout of overseas runners cmk, just half a dozen or maybe 10 to add a bit of international flavour to the event. There are a lot of potential entrants in Australia already, whether they wish to pound their cars around for 12 hours of wear and tear is obviously something they will have to weigh up individually.
I think you would have to say goodbye to the slower categories in the 12 hour though surely, the diesels and the smaller non-turbos would just get in the way and be dangerous IMHO.

[nafe!]

From a spectators point of view its what we have all wanted, to see gt cars back at bathurst in a major event.

Sitting on pit straight watching the majorly modified skyline do a exhibition and clear some of the water at the same time my friend remarked that it represented the sort of spectacle that he wished to see at bathurst.

GT3 cars would definately produce a great race, there are plenty in the country now and with the possibility of international entries it would be a fantastic event.

And this is no way a insult to the production cars because they produce an amazing race every year, but there is no doubt far more spectators will turn up to watch a major gt enduro race. I would also suggest that there will be much more of a investment made by major companies to support the event.

But on the other side of the argument i really dont know if this is fair to the production cars that have stood up and really got this event back into its stride.

Its a hard situation to be in and i would not like to be the event organisers who have to juggle this issue.

[Bullett]

Images of a Nurburgring 24hr are coming to my head...

[KSM86]

A dream come true! soo disspointed i couldnt go and see the bathurs 24hour race so this is the next best thing espcially seen the fia gt1 champs arnt coming over here

[ivision]

That would be awesome! I'd definately make the trip to see GT3 enduro at Bathurst!!!

[nafe!]

Going off comments on this forum and others it is definately a hit as far as spectators are concerned.

Would be nice for a couple of the Production guys as well as gt guys to weigh into the discussion so we can how it is being recieved by the people which it directly effects.

[CooperS79]

Originally Posted by nafe!

Going off comments on this forum and others it is definately a hit as far as spectators are concerned.

Would be nice for a couple of the Production guys as well as gt guys to weigh into the discussion so we can how it is being recieved by the people which it directly effects.

I'm sure a few would be disappointed as so would people who have cars half built that would have competed for a top 10 under the current rules.
I wasn't in favour when this was first mentioned but remembering the sound of the GT cars at Bathurst has started to change my mind.
Also could more teams entering bring down entry costs for all??

[D.R.T.]

Pro's and con's for the move to include GT's.

If they are going to include GT it would be good for GT management to commit to x amount of cars as you would hate to see the production car numbers dwindle for 10 or so GT cars.

[FIRE]

Great news!

[Alan52]

Maybe the organisers have been forced to look at including GT cars because the production entry hasn't grown at the rate needed to ensure the event's financial viability.The question that has to be asked is what level of support GT competitors will give the race particularly if it is a non Championship event.In the 24 hour races in 2002 and 2003 very few of the Nations Cup regulars entered the race and although some thought this was a protest against the presence of the "mongrel" Monaro a lot had to do with the cost of rebuilding these cars after a long distance race.

[alfacors]

I've mixed feelings about this. I'd prefer to see the race retained for production cars, but at the same time, the GT class would bring in extra sponsors, crowds, corporate support etc. It may also discourage a lot of Production guys from competing if they have to compete against the megabucks GT cars, so you've got pros and cons either way. Personally, I loved seeing GT cars on the mount, we were a bit starved for GT action this year with the rain playing havoc with the Porsche GT3 cup races

Perhaps running a 1hr *sprint* race for GT cars on the Friday afternoon, and then a 3 hour enduro for GT cars on the Saturday afternoon would be an alternative? Best of both worlds?

[davelise]

[alfacors]

Emulate the Exige in Production and do it on 1 set of tyres Dave?

[davelise]

Yeah, stop at 6hours for driver change and some fuel too.