PWC: 2020

[cbbrit]

More updates from SRO concerning the GT/GTA Class in 2019:

https://sportscar365.com/world-chall...nd-gt3-growth/

[TRspitfirefan]

Originally Posted by cbbrit

More updates from SRO concerning the GT/GTA Class in 2019:

https://sportscar365.com/world-chall...nd-gt3-growth/

I'm pretty hopeful about next season. The series has a good thing going and if they can reach their target of eighteen or more GT3 cars on the grid then it could be absolutely incredible!

[cbbrit]

GT4-based GTS/GTSA updates:

https://sportscar365.com/world-chall...er-evaluation/

[jjvincent]

Any news on what PWC is going to do with the falling car counts? Three years ago they were getting over 100 cars per race and now they are in the 80's. That's a 20% drop in entries. I hope they put out some press releases on how they are going to fix that. Plus GT is not looking so hot as the GT race at the Glen had something like 7 cars running at the end of race 2. 7 cars running around on a 3+mile track is like what you see when 5 teams rent a track for a day and do testing.

[WolfsburgRS]

They've definitely got a problem on their hands. I know they're going to whole SRO route of "our customer is the wealthy sportsman and we don't cater to or look for a fan base", but I don't know that works for the American market. Wealthy sportsman or not, a guy/girl spending a few million wants to be a part of 'the big show' and feel like they're a part of something bigger than an individual. (or at least, I would if it were me).



One of the owners of my shop went up to Watkins and said it was an absolute ghost town when it came to spectators. PWC sent out notifications to all the big car clubs (Audi Club, BMW, Porsche, etc) and offered free weekend passes with free VIP suite passes and even with all that, my boss said when they went to the suite they were two of 3 total people in the room who weren't working the event.

Word from the competitors in TCR is that the whole 'DSG Cup' class is PWCs way of avoiding the BOP issue between the SEQ and DSG cars.

[FormulaFox]

The overall drop in car counts isn't anywhere near enough to be concerned with. GT is the only class where there's a real issue with car counts, but even then it's only because of it being a single-class race. TCR and TCA each draw a similar number of cars, but the classes run together so you barely notice. (GTS and TC both exceed 20 entries on their own)

As for attracting back those GT entries, the change to the race format should, at least in theory, attract deep-pocketed gentlemen drivers to get other cars on the grid. According to Ratel, competitors -active and prospective- were pushing for this change so there's at least enough interest for it to POSSIBLY work, but whether or not it does is of course another question entirely.

[Umai Naa]

Originally Posted by WolfsburgRS

Word from the competitors in TCR is that the whole 'DSG Cup' class is PWCs way of avoiding the BOP issue between the SEQ and DSG cars.

There's no 'issue'.

The teams weren't forced to buy a DSG car, they chose to. They would've been very naive to think that there'd be no disadvantage in performance, compared to a sequential car. They can convert them to sequential with an upgrade kit from Audisport if they want to.

Having said that, there's a Curpa DSG running at the pointy end of TCR Italy, which is considered a very competitive championship. In short; work harder, or spend the money.

For my mind, PWC TCR races are too long. They're neither exciting, nor engaging enough. Use the format other TCR championships use, 25min-ish races, invert the top 10 quali positions for race 2, et voila. And combine TCA with TC instead.

[nasportscar]

There's a decent shot TCR will be on its own next season

[Mechanic Z]

Originally Posted by WolfsburgRS

One of the owners of my shop went up to Watkins and said it was an absolute ghost town when it came to spectators. PWC sent out notifications to all the big car clubs (Audi Club, BMW, Porsche, etc) and offered free weekend passes with free VIP suite passes and even with all that, my boss said when they went to the suite they were two of 3 total people in the room who weren't working the event.

It was a pretty small turnout. For what it's worth, when I talked so some local fans they told me that the previous event, a Phish music festival scheduled only a couple weeks earlier, had to be cancelled due to the track's water being contaminated. That could be a pretty big turn off.

[jjvincent]

Originally Posted by Mechanic Z

It was a pretty small turnout. For what it's worth, when I talked so some local fans they told me that the previous event, a Phish music festival scheduled only a couple weeks earlier, had to be cancelled due to the track's water being contaminated. That could be a pretty big turn off.

That wasn't it at all. This was a holiday weekend and the track should have been full. It's that they never marketed the race. A friend of mine lives in Corning and had no idea there was a race at the track that weekend. He even drove through Watkins Glen on Saturday to go on a beer tour around Seneca Lake. That's pretty bad because he normally goes to anything at the track. If you don't market the event, nobody will show up (unless it's Lime Rock). Just like at COTA, the PWC event is like a club event. Crew outnumbers the spectators 2 to 1.

The overall drop in car counts isn't anywhere near enough to be concerned with. GT is the only class where there's a real issue with car counts,

That's good to know. So a 20% drop in revenue from the teams is no big deal. I never knew that the sanctioning body could care less about anything but GT. If that's the case, get rid of everything but GT and maybe keep GTS.

It sort of makes sense as the only updates here are on GT and GTS as the TC classes get no love at all from the hard core fans. Maybe just ditch those classes and concentrate on GT and GTS. Fiddle faddling around with the race lengths, East West championships and maybe downgrading driver lineups along with adding more sub classes would be the answer. I wonder if a 2 hour series with only Bronze drivers might be the ticket. To make it better we could have a lower level and call it Lead rated. This would be guys that have a valid drivers license and no more than two DE days under their belt.

There's always an option to take old GT3 cars and making GT3Xtreme. Just make it like Time Attack but the cars must have wings more than double what they were originally. After that, more turbos and NOS.

[FormulaFox]

Originally Posted by jjvincent

That's good to know. So a 20% drop in revenue from the teams is no big deal.

Given the lack of promotion you were just talking about, I don't think it's unfair to say that the series isn't terribly concerned about it. If there was reason to be worried about the car count drop, they'd be doing more to attract the attention of fans.


That said, I was speaking in regards to the on-track product rather than the series' actual revenue. The car counts are not bad enough to be of concern in that regard - they still have a very marketable series with the current car counts, they just have a couple of details that make it look like a serious problem when it's a mild concern at best(for now, at least - With how often PWC goes up and down in various aspects it's impossible to accurately work out what's likely to happen if they do or don't do something).

[cbbrit]

GT4 format and schedules have been finalized:

https://sportscar365.com/world-chall...les-finalized/

[TheMightyM]

Originally Posted by cbbrit

GT4 format and schedules have been finalized:

https://sportscar365.com/world-chall...les-finalized/

PWC never fails to confuse me. Four different GT4 championships? Really?

[cbbrit]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

PWC never fails to confuse me. Four different GT4 championships? Really?

Better get used to it then! SRO's in charge now!

[FormulaFox]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

PWC never fails to confuse me. Four different GT4 championships? Really?

There's technically only two - the Sprint and SprintX championships. Each has a sub-championship in the East and West cup for teams that don't want to participate in EVERY round.


They could have simplified it by only listing the Sprint and SprintX championship and labeling which was an East or West Cup round without listing the East/West Cup rounds separately, but it's not really complicated.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by FormulaFox

There's technically only two - the Sprint and SprintX championships. Each has a sub-championship in the East and West cup for teams that don't want to participate in EVERY round.


They could have simplified it by only listing the Sprint and SprintX championship and labeling which was an East or West Cup round without listing the East/West Cup rounds separately, but it's not really complicated.

How is that technically two? They are awarding multiple championships and they aren't saying you aren't a champion just because you didn't win the national. They are currently scheduled to award at least 4 champions and any attempt to pretend they aren't is just trying to pay yourself on the back for defining champions as national. It's not and they gave said there will be champions for Sprint and SprintX and East and West SprintX as well. Directly stated by the SRO in their press release

[FormulaFox]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

How is that technically two?

Because there are only two. The Sprint and SprintX championships. The East and West Cups are regional series that happen to race with the nationals. They're SUB-series within the two actual Championships. It's no different than what IMSA's doing next year, and nobody's complaining about them having two sub-series within the main championship.

[Umai Naa]

They could've made it a whole lot easier by dumping the Sprint/Sprint-X, and moving to the 1hr 2 driver format they use everywhere else.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by FormulaFox

Because there are only two. The Sprint and SprintX championships. The East and West Cups are regional series that happen to race with the nationals. They're SUB-series within the two actual Championships. It's no different than what IMSA's doing next year, and nobody's complaining about them having two sub-series within the main championship.

Because IMSA actually announced theirs as SEPARATE divisions within GTD from the start and actually most people on here already questioned why it was needed

[FormulaFox]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Because IMSA actually announced theirs as SEPARATE divisions within GTD from the start

And exactly how is that different from what PWC is doing with GT4?

and actually most people on here already questioned why it was needed

Questioning it being necessary is not the same as calling it confusing, and I've not seen anyone complain that what IMSA's doing is confusing as of yet.

[jjvincent]

More GT4 classes the better for the US. We need more. If we can get up to 20 GT4 classes starting in 2019, I'll enter a 2005 FR500C GT4 and find a remote series to win a GT4 championship in. I just need to make sure nobody else enters in the series. Then when I'm dominating it, I'll crank out a press release where I'm exploring PWC or IMSA for my future endeavors. Since it's GT4, that's good for about 3 posts. After that I'll just claim a GT3 team and that will get everyone going for months.

[nasportscar]

Started the entry list trackers. Forgot to add TKO to rumored under GT3. Was told today that 15-18 is a good bet for GT3 entries

https://www.facebook.com/notes/north...3931338393142/

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by nasportscar

Started the entry list trackers. Forgot to add TKO to rumored under GT3. Was told today that 15-18 is a good bet for GT3 entries

https://www.facebook.com/notes/north...3931338393142/

Great start!

Its like they read your post, and responded!

https://sportscar365.com/other-serie...-2019-options/

Dyson linked to a pair of brand new Astons for the season..

[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

Great start!

Its like they read your post, and responded!

https://sportscar365.com/other-serie...-2019-options/

Dyson linked to a pair of brand new Astons for the season..

Lol! I really hope they return, would love to see the team back on the grid. I did get a tip that 15 is a good number to expect with up to 18 very possible for GT3.

[Juntos]

Multiple sources have indicated to Sportscar365 that Dyson Racing could run several Aston Martins in the newly named Blancpain GT World Challenge America in 2019.

What did happen between Dyson and Bentley?