Intercontinental GT Challenge

[RL17]

Great race and decent field considering Australia has been very hard to get to in recent years.

Good you tube feed and lots of full replay chunks up asap - no 2 week or so wait like some WEC events.

Tyres held up very well (almost 2 well on double stints)

3rd team not too happy on podium, especially as main two drivers at end were in same team at Rolex!

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by AndreasDavour

I realize that as Australia is a long way from here in Europe, the hours must be longer as well, and a 12h race still going, 16 hours or so later...

I clearly had not had any coffee yet...

Did you forget to add in the station breaks for adverts?

[GT3_Fan]

Originally Posted by GregUK

Rossi drove the WRT Audi R8 last season in the Fanatec GT World Challenge (12 races - inc Spa 24).

WRT have swapped to the BMW M4 for this season and Rossi has already had seat time in the BMW not only in testing but also raced in the Dubai 24 last month.

I think Rossi is taking to the M4 quite well so far.

[bathurst77]

Originally Posted by 275 GTB-4

Did you forget to add in the station breaks for adverts?

I always think it must be so hard on the cars tyres and drivers in these enduros, when they have to stop constantly for adv breaks, and then start racing again after the ads.

[tux]

Originally Posted by GT3_Fan

I think Rossi is taking to the M4 quite well so far.

First race ive watched in a while while using live timing, hard to judge apples with apples because some guys were fuel saving but he wasnt far off the pace of the other BMW. Consistently slower than the other PROs BUT not by a huge amount thats to be expected imo. Thing that surprises me with Rossi is his lack of obvious mistakes bar the missing of his pit crew in his first race. I cant remember a time where he has crashed or hit anyone else and for someone with limited experience racing at this level against other pros i think thats impressive.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Race ended 30 minutes to early.

Perhaps but I suspect "Mad Maro" as RLM dubbed him was out of both hours are tyres at the end... he would have been fighting Mr Campbell, whose quiet, unobtrusive, metronomic consistency would be interesting to see

Mr Gounon was definitely out of tyres at the drop of the chequered..

[justracing]

Originally Posted by Mike E

What a pleasure to watch a race without stupid contrived safety car pit procedures. The lucky dog thing is nonsense, obviously, but the rest is great because it's simple. The pit lane is always open. Take your chances!

Yep, the simplicity of the race made for great viewing despite the relatively low entry, no over regulated rules on compulsory pit stops, etc. Great fight at the end with the top 3 and Mostert 65 team recovered really well. It would have been good to see some more Italian machinery.

[Mike E]

The drip feed of car announcements for Kyalami continues. So far we have:
The Bathurst winning Sunenergy1 AMG
Grove Racing Porsche (not sure if it's the car that crashed out of Bathurst)
At least one WRT BMW M4
A local AMG from Stradale Motorsport
2 Audi Customer Racing South Africa R8s

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Mike E

The drip feed of car announcements for Kyalami continues. So far we have:
The Bathurst winning Sunenergy1 AMG
Grove Racing Porsche (not sure if it's the car that crashed out of Bathurst)
At least one WRT BMW M4
A local AMG from Stradale Motorsport
2 Audi Customer Racing South Africa R8s

Certainly under 2 weeks out from practice starting and a total of 13 entries is a worry.
(I dont see the Grove car on the current entry list on the IGTC website, though I know Grove's website said they are running all 5 IGTC events. Maybe they dont have a car available after Bathurst )


Entry list: https://www.intercontinentalgtchalle...kyalami-9-hour

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by E.B

Certainly under 2 weeks out from practice starting and a total of 13 entries is a worry.
(I dont see the Grove car on the current entry list on the IGTC website, though I know Grove's website said they are running all 5 IGTC events. Maybe they dont have a car available after Bathurst )


Entry list: https://www.intercontinentalgtchalle...kyalami-9-hour

That was the one from 2021. But I don't think we'll see a much better field than that. If it was good, SRO would have released it a long time ago.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

That was the one from 2021. But I don't think we'll see a much better field than that. If it was good, SRO would have released it a long time ago.

Whoops. My bad. I must admit I did wonder why there was a Not Available against the Kyalami date in the 'other' entries heading on their website.

Thanks for the correction.

Hopefully we get some good news on this years entry in the coming days.

[Mike E]

Originally Posted by Mike E

The drip feed of car announcements for Kyalami continues. So far we have:
The Bathurst winning Sunenergy1 AMG
Grove Racing Porsche (not sure if it's the car that crashed out of Bathurst)
At least one WRT BMW M4
A local AMG from Stradale Motorsport
2 Audi Customer Racing South Africa R8s

A second WRT M4 has been confirmed

[Mike E]

Originally Posted by Mike E

A second WRT M4 has been confirmed

GruppeM AMG confirmed

[deggis]

Five days to event start and entry list still not out.

(Or at least not here: https://www.intercontinentalgtchallenge.com)

[PhilipR]

I would not judge the entry list at face value as there are a lot of circumstances that are affecting Kyalami and the Bathurst race
I feel for SRO - Kyalami and Bathurst are probably in the wrong part of the year surrounded by Daytona and Asian Le Mans Series(Auto invitation to Le Mans)
A more traditional October-February Asian Le Mans calendar might make it more appealing for other teams to go to these races
Couple that with supply chain issues and issues with transporting equipment across long distances I can see why teams would skip Bathurst and Kyalami. Bathurst is helped by a healthy local racing environment but not sure how many gt3 teams and races happen in South Africa to make up for low numbers coming from Europe or the US
Also what are the travel, entry requirements for SA , are they back to normal or still have restrictions?

I guess we got to the point where GT3 being the universal GT class has over saturated the market so some races will miss out

[Bcarr6]

GruppeM, Sun Energy, WRT x2, Attempto x2, Grove, Stradale, maybe 2x local Audi’s

That’s 10

[Mike E]

There are no travel restrictions but there is also almost no local GT3 activity. I hope they are able to make the race sustainable somehow.

[Bcarr6]

Add SPS Automotive

[tux]

Surprised they replaced Rossi with Eng....

[stuart thompson]

Originally Posted by tux

Surprised they replaced Rossi with Eng....

I believe he’s concentrating on the GTWCE so is staying in Europe to get some testing miles under his belt.

[Juntos]

Three teams enter Kyalami SuperCup, to be held during first hour of Kyalami 9 Hour:

- No. 3 NGK Pablo Clark Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Mikaeel Pitamber
- No. 11 BigFoot Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Sun Moodley
- No. 51 MJR Audi R8 LMS GT4 of Joseph Ellerine


13 cars on the provisional entry list for the IGTC Kyalami 9 Hour!

[deggis]

Full entry list:
https://www.intercontinentalgtchalle...meeting_id=134

[thetool]

10 cars for a 9 hour race. That's over a car an hour, impressive!

[Bcarr6]

Got to start questioning this event now. Either fix the scheduling or scrap it.

Not enough local teams to support it, and the European teams outside of those with factory support have no interest in its current positioning.

[Mike E]

Yep, starting to look silly. Such a shame covid scuppered the WEC plans for Kyalami. At least that series turns up with its own cars.

https://www.autosport.com/wec/news/r...84903/4984903/