Should British GT races be longer?

[MikeHoyer]

Maybe it's just me but I feel the 1 hour format is a bit too short. Granted I only went to one Brit GT race last year (Brands), but it was great, you could watch from all points on the circuit.

Personally I love endurance races, so 3 hour or more Brit GT races would be great!

[SALEEN S7R]

I agree Mike, although its unlikely things will change unfortunatly. Still I dont see any reason as to why races cant go back to what they were a couple of years ago, around 90 minutes, or even 2 hour races with a single 3 hour race per season. If I remember rightly Ratel shortned the length of races due to costs, and also because he said that the Britsh GT series and other national series are feeder series essentially and teams wishing to run longer races have the option to do FIA GT's. (There was no LMES when he made this announcement)

[TerryC]

I'm not asking much, but a 2 hour session would be nice.

[MikeHoyer]

Well it's no good for us British fans who can't get to every FIA GT race...

Although with the loss of Snetterton, Oulton Park, and Brands Hatch for 2005, it looks as though I'll be at less British events aswell

[luke]

I think 3 hours is s bit to long, 2 to 1 and a 1/2 is just about right for me.

[eddsc]

Yes.

[MikeHoyer]

Yes, 1.5 to 2 hours would probably be a good compromise. This 2 1 hour race thing is no good for those of us that can't be there both days...

[SALEEN S7R]

Perhaps Malcom could help influence any future changes regarding the length of the races? I mean as DSC are the title sponsors of the GT3 class of the British GT championship Im sure DSC would have some influence, and Ratel is a reasonable sort of person, isnt he...

[BSchneiderFan]

Races should be longer, and three hours seems reasonable to me. The problem with shorter races is that teams in the British GT Championship have real trouble graduating to the longer races of the international championships; they don't have the experience of keeping cars and drivers going for that long. Maybe a non-points sprint race (30, 45 minutes?) on a Saturday to keep the crowds entertained (it could even decide the grid if you like) then a proper 3 hour race on Sunday.

[MikeHoyer]

That's a good idea actually.

[SALEEN S7R]

Yes it is, but Ratel dosent want that for the series. And according to him neither do the teams.

[Woolley]

My immediate reaction is 'Yes', but it should be more complicated. The best sprtscar series over the years have had races of varying lenghts. What I would like to see is a few 1 hr races, 2 or 3 of 3hrs and 1 or 2 of 5-6 hrs, maybe one of them running into darkness.

[rdjones]

An hour is just a little bit too short IMO, as other people have said hour and half or two hours would but better. The problem is I can't see 2 hour race fitting into the current F3/GT meeting.

The other problems is that joe public who goes to an F3/GT rounds gets a little bit borad of a GT race after 20 to 30 mins by which point everyone is strug out and they do not have a clue what is going on, for use that follow sportscar racing we understand what is going as we are following the race. If you look at all the other races which take place at and F3/GT meeting they all last 20 to 30 mins, have lots of action and are easy to follow.

[MikeHoyer]

Even so...

Anyway, I was thinking maybe there should be more than 1 mandatory stop, that could make things a bit more interesting.

It's a good point about the crowd getting bored, but surely that's what most of them are there for, I know I've been to GT races where a good portion of the crowd has gone home after the GT race. This was the case at Brands, although it was rather inclement weather...

Varying lengths would be interesting though, and I like the race into darkness thing. Maybe they could have the race at the end of the days events, so people can go if they want to, but they won't miss anything else.

[eddsc]

One problem is that the teams themselves don't seem able to agree on a format that they all like. Some entrants love 1 hour races, some loved the longer events of 2003.