Intercontinental GT Challenge

[Bcarr6]

With the calendar announced, and Lamborghini today committing to the season, I thought it was time the series as a whole got a thread. Looks like 2020 is going to be a big year for the IGTC.

2020 Calendar:

Jan 31-Feb 2: Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour (AUS)
Jul 23-26: Total 24 Hours of Spa (BEL)
Aug 21-23: Suzuka 10 Hours (JPN)
Oct 2-4: Indianapolis 8 Hours (USA)
Nov 20-22: Kyalami 9 Hour (RSA)

Curious how the Shanghai 888 fits into all this long term, and excited to see how Indianapolis goes, Laguna Seca was cool but maybe not the best logistically for teams. Will have to refresh my memory on the Indy road course.

[Mike E]

https://sportscar365.com/sro/igtc/sc...th-sunenergy1/

I hope the old boy has a good race. What a legend.

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by Mike E

https://sportscar365.com/sro/igtc/sc...th-sunenergy1/



I hope the old boy has a good race. What a legend.

Should be quite a quiet race for him getting Kenny past the post

[Bcarr6]

Thank you Sam Collins for providing commentary that isn’t unbearable!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Juntos]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

Thank you Sam Collins for providing commentary that isn’t unbearable!!

The question is ... how did he got there?

[ss_collins]

Thank you Sam Collins for providing commentary that isn’t unbearable!!

The question is ... how did he got there?

Thanks Bcarr!

Juntos (I know you are my biggest fan!) - an Embraer 190, Boeing 787, Shinkansen N700A, Kinetetsu 30000, Toyota Crown, Geox trainers...

Does that answer your question?

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by ss_collins

Thanks Bcarr!

Juntos (I know you are my biggest fan!) - an Embraer 190, Boeing 787, Shinkansen N700A, Kinetetsu 30000, Toyota Crown, Geox trainers...

Does that answer your question?

Agree for sure. Don't worry about the haters. I loved the laid back commentary that the Suzuka 10 hours had. And it was nice to have some different voices too. Can you write down the names of your colleagues and their profile. Since a lot of us are not familiar with them.

The Suzuka 10 Hours is well run event. My favorite SRO sanctioned race in the world now. I would rank it ahead of Bathurst and Spa now which are littered with safety cars on an yearly basis. This race runs very smoothly. They only threw the safety car for an accident. If there was debris. Quick FCY while the gaps between the cars remain and off you go again within 2-3 minutes.

I felt bad for the WRT Audi when the safety car in the 6th hour came out due to that Ferrari crashing. They had built up a nice 45 second lead. One that was well earned. I was hoping they would keep it at "FCY" for that one just to keep the gaps between the cars, but alas did not happen. But with so many lapped cars in between the leader and 2nd at least they were able to stretch their lead very quickly due to the traffic situation at the restart. As I have said on the forums many times one of the important aspects of the endurance races I think is to allow situations for the gaps that are built up to be preserved and not artificially erased. Happens way to much now. In a weird way I miss the days where the races were won by margins of 5-10 laps.

[Speed-King]

In a weird way I miss the days where the races were won by margins of 5-10 laps.

Agreed, though I would add: And reliability was enough of a concern that even with such an advantage victory was in no way assured.

[Bcarr6]

So the Kyalami entry is due today, with a supposed 30+ entry list.

I currently count 23 confirmed, interested to see what else comes

KYALAMI 9 HOURS ENTRY LIST

Audi Sport Team WRT - Audi R8 LMS GT3 - Kelvin van der Linde / Frederic Vervisch / Dries Vanthoor
Audi Sport Team Land - Audi R8 LMS GT3 - Christopher Haase / Christopher Mies / Markus Winklehock
Bentley Team M-Sport - Bentley Continental GT3 -
Bentley Team M-Sport - Bentley Continental GT3 -
Black Falcon - Mercedes AMG GT3 - Hubert Haupt / Patrick Assenheimer / Sergej Afanasiev
BMW Team Schnitzer - BMW M6 GT3 - Sheldon van der Linde / Augusto Farfus / Martin Tomczyk
Dinamic Motorsport - Porsche 911 GT3 R - Matt Campbell / Earl Bamber / Laurens Vanthoor
Frikadelli Racing - Porsche 911 GT3 R - Dennis Olsen / Nick Tandy / Mathieu Jaminet
GPX Racing - Porsche 911 GT3 R - Kevin Estre / Michael Christensen / Richard Lietz
HubAuto Racing - Ferrari 488 GT3 -
KCMG - Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 - Alexandre Imperatori / Oliver Jarvis / Edoardo Liberati
KCMG - Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 - Tsugio Matsuda / Katsumasa Chiyo / Josh Burdon
Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing - Mercedes AMG GT3 - Maxi Buck / Raffaele Marciello / Maro Engel
Mercedes-AMG Team SPS Automotive - Mercedes AMG GT3 - Maxi Goetz / Yelmer Buurman / Luca Stolz
Mercedes-AMG Team Strakka Racing - Mercedes AMG GT3 - Gary Paffett / Lewis Williamson / Tristan Vautier
R-Motorsport - Aston Martin Vantage GT3 - Ricky Collard / Marvin Kirchhofer / Hugo De Sadeleer
R-Motorsport - Aston Martin Vantage GT3 - Maxime Martin / Jake Dennis / Ahmed Read
SPS Automotive - Mercedes AMG GT3 - Tim Mueller / Miguel Ramos / Valentin Pierburg
Strakka Racing - Mercedes AMG GT3 - Christina Nielsen / Dominik Baumann / Henry d’Silva
SunEnergy1 Racing - Mercedes AMG GT3 - Kenny Habul / Thomas Jaeger / Bernd Schneider
Team 75 Bernhard - Porsche 911 GT3 R - Dirk Werner / Sven Muller / Roman Dumas
Team Perfect Circle - Porsche 911 GT3 R -
Walkenhorst Motorsport - BMW M6 GT3 - Christian Krognes / Nick Catsburg / Mikkel Jensen

[Speed-King]

Here's the entrylist:

http://vmail.vertouk.net/userfiles/s...2001_10_19.pdf

I think that's a pretty decent field for the track its on and the race duration.

[urdragon]

According to sportscar365 there are only three local entries, Whats the point in flying to the most remote point in africa for only three local entries.

Far worst local assistance than suzuka.

Good international success, poor local support in my opinion.

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by urdragon

According to sportscar365 there are only three local entries, Whats the point in flying to the most remote point in africa for only three local entries.

Far worst local assistance than suzuka.

Good international success, poor local support in my opinion.

Well the white population is taking a huge hit through abuses in South Africa right now. Racism against them is very very bad. Being covered by by mainstream press. So they are not exactly rich. They are the only ones who do motor racing I'm sure. I thought maybe GT4 or TCR's from local teams would be allowed to race. But I guess its GT3 only. Strange how some ICGT races are GT3 only but Laguna and Bathurst are not. That's ok, after the calamity at Barcelona, a 30 car grid will be just fine.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

Well the white population is taking a huge hit through abuses in South Africa right now. Racism against them is very very bad. Being covered by by mainstream press. So they are not exactly rich. They are the only ones who do motor racing I'm sure. I thought maybe GT4 or TCR's from local teams would be allowed to race. But I guess its GT3 only. Strange how some ICGT races are GT3 only but Laguna and Bathurst are not. That's ok, after the calamity at Barcelona, a 30 car grid will be just fine.

There really aren't very many (any?!) GT4s and TCRs in South Africa. The country's premier series races a version of the Gen 1 MARC chassis and they only do sprint races of 15 to 20 minutes. Though the short duration of the races does not seem to be a consequence of the economic situation as races really weren't much longer during the golden days of the Wesbank Modifieds in the late 80s.

[urdragon]

If U want the series to grow, this local disaster is just a way to hide the international sucess of 27 cars to a small grid of 30. Im sure arab countries are a better venue for an African entry, assuming they are in Africa.

If U do not secure a minimum of local entries, there are lots of better places. Even considering the track/country/southafrican federation paying lots of bills to ratel.

[Bcarr6]

I think the grid is decent enough for a first time running.

It’ll expand in years.

I’m excited to see how this kind of grid looks at this circuit, and of course remember there is some local heroes in European cars- the VDL brothers and of course Pepper In he Bentley

[Bcarr6]

I also imagine it’s on the SRO’s agenda to get a Middle Eastern race to add to the IGTC in coming years...

Seems like that’s now the only area they are properly missing, other than South America and I don’t massively see that happening

I wonder if purchasing the Gulf 12 Hours and making it GT3/Gt4 only would be something that’d work for them

[Juntos]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

Seems like that’s now the only area they are properly missing, other than South America and I don’t massively see that happening

SRO has been quite active in Brazil in the past and used to host a race in Argentina. A Middle East race will be on cards in the day that Sheik shows up with a big bag of money.

[Mike E]

Dane Cameron to join Honda at Kyalami.

https://www.motorsport.com/endurance...mpression=true

[Mike E]

DSC preview

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2019/1...r-preview.html


And S365 notes
https://sportscar365.com/sro/igtc/ky...sday-notebook/

[Bcarr6]

Looking forward to this one, first international race at the track in a little while...

[tux]

Maybe im being naive but can i ask what the fascination is with this circuit? Im of a "younger generation" so never saw races here before but watching onboard videos it doesn't look anything special.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by tux

Maybe im being naive but can i ask what the fascination is with this circuit? Im of a "younger generation" so never saw races here before but watching onboard videos it doesn't look anything special.

Name another (permanent) circuit on the continent able to handle international events...

I guess that's the fascination.

The circuit was already modified at the end of 80s so the original configuration isn't that relevant.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by tux

Maybe im being naive but can i ask what the fascination is with this circuit? Im of a "younger generation" so never saw races here before but watching onboard videos it doesn't look anything special.

Current version isn't amazing but it's not bad. But I love it because it is different to the usual places. The circuit itself isn't amazing, but it's nice to see even a tiny bit of variety when Blancpain is using Barcelona and Hungaroring yet again.

[Mike E]

https://youtu.be/O2vwtFYCDmk

Night practice

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Current version isn't amazing but it's not bad. But I love it because it is different to the usual places. The circuit itself isn't amazing, but it's nice to see even a tiny bit of variety when Blancpain is using Barcelona and Hungaroring yet again.

Yeh for me it’s mostly that- something different, I’m interested to see how the essentially new track works in GT3 competition.

And I love that it’s allowed the IGTC to be on one more continent. They just need South America maybe.

A race in the Arab states or similar always made sense to me too, but the choice of circuits there don’t thrill me. Dubai should stay reserved to the 24h, Yas Marina works for the gulf 12h but is quite sterile. And let’s definitely not contemplate Bahrain..