GT World Challenge Europe 2021

[Racing Harz]

WRT will race with multiple cars, the announcement will follow.

[Bcarr6]

Yes fully expected Audis from Attempto and WRT, this list is just announced entries

[GregUK]

WRT are definitely at the Paul Ricard test today.

[GregUK]

29 entries confirmed in Sprint
40 entries confirmed in Endurance

Excellent!

[Bcarr6]

Interesting, good grid counts for both, got to say though its a big shame its so heavily dominated by the VAG + Mercedes brands.

Sad to see a sole Mclaren, and only a pair of Astons with no PRO car.


No Getspeed, Rocket RJN, Optimum, Haupt isnt listed even though they announced cars last week

[Racing Harz]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

Haupt isnt listed even though they announced cars last week

#4 and #5 in Endurance Cup.
HRT is their official Shortcut in the Name.

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by Racing Harz

#4 and #5 in Endurance Cup.
HRT is their official Shortcut in the Name.

Ha! Yes, thatll teach me for skim-reading

[Racing Harz]

Walkenhorst Motorsport:
#34: Marco Wittmann/Sheldion van der Linde/David Pittard
#35: Martin Tomczyk/Timo Glock/Thomas Neubauer
https://gt-place.com/2021/03/25/walk...llenge-europe/

[GregUK]

Originally Posted by Racing Harz

Walkenhorst Motorsport:
#34: Marco Wittmann/Sheldion van der Linde/David Pittard
#35: Martin Tomczyk/Timo Glock/Thomas Neubauer
https://gt-place.com/2021/03/25/walk...llenge-europe/

Dat Tim O'Glock is a cracker!

[tux]

I do wonder if we will ever see a new manufacturer to the series again. Shame to see Nissan, Lexus gone.

Pleasant surprise to see BMW represented with 2 very good driver lineups, didn’t expect it after last season and the new car development.

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by tux

I do wonder if we will ever see a new manufacturer to the series again. Shame to see Nissan, Lexus gone.

Pleasant surprise to see BMW represented with 2 very good driver lineups, didn’t expect it after last season and the new car development.

With prototype spec dtm gone and partial IMSA program, guess bmw had only GTworld and new dtm2021 to let their drivers have some work in 2021.

[W2Motorsport]

Maro Engel and Lucas Stolz in Sprint Cup with Toksport

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by tux

I do wonder if we will ever see a new manufacturer to the series again. Shame to see Nissan, Lexus gone.

Pleasant surprise to see BMW represented with 2 very good driver lineups, didn’t expect it after last season and the new car development.

The GT homologation is keeping cars like KTM and Glickenhause from being full GT3. So the answer is no unless GM or Ford step up.

Part of what made GT great in the 1990s was the unique but good cars such as the Lister Storm, Panoz, and Mosler. The homologation rules today keeps these cars out of SRO at least. Thankfully you can get them at the N'ring, Creventic, and GT Open. Not sure about IMSA. Probably not with their manufactuter fee for GT cars. Not fair becasue they don't enforce that on LMP2 and LMP3.

[W2Motorsport]

Originally Posted by WyldStallion

The GT homologation is keeping cars like KTM and Glickenhause from being full GT3. So the answer is no unless GM or Ford step up.

Part of what made GT great in the 1990s was the unique but good cars such as the Lister Storm, Panoz, and Mosler. The homologation rules today keeps these cars out of SRO at least. Thankfully you can get them at the N'ring, Creventic, and GT Open. Not sure about IMSA. Probably not with their manufactuter fee for GT cars. Not fair becasue they don't enforce that on LMP2 and LMP3.

I believe this is often a BOP/Manufacturer issue. If you are going to BOP all the cars close together then the manufacturers want all of those cars to be in the same prestige category as their car. I read an article from Ratel about this last year. I can see their points if you BOP the KTM ($80k?) and Ferrari ($300k?) and the KTM wins how does that look for Ferrari? Bad to the average person who has no understanding of how BOP works.

Here is the article I think: https://sportscar365.com/industry/ae...-new-gt3-regs/

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by tux

I do wonder if we will ever see a new manufacturer to the series again. Shame to see Nissan, Lexus gone.

Pleasant surprise to see BMW represented with 2 very good driver lineups, didn’t expect it after last season and the new car development.

In the case of the Japanese cars it can only be because they are not offering strong enough incentives or cost effective support deals to entrants at the moment?

The Nissan is getting a bit long in the tooth but has still been competitive.

Lexus is an odd one. When Frey built and ran them, they were title challengers but clearly Toyota were not interested in backing a European programme or cars not built by the factory iirc?

The car was still strong with tech 3/PB Comp in silver cup though
and the cars are a strong presence in the GT3 regd GTD class in the states.

Perhaps the combined might of VAG means support deals are cheaper split across the various brands?

[Bcarr6]

Another Mclaren in the endurance cup

Optimum Motorsport - Mclaren 720s GT3 - Brendan Iribe / Ollie Millroy / TBC

[Bcarr6]

Up to 44 cars for the Monza entry list.

https://www.gt-world-challenge-europ...meeting_id=177

If we hadn't been spoilt by the 55-65 car grids of the BES heydays, 44 cars would be excellent.

Given the increased pressure on the series from COVID, DTM, even NLS, as well as the various sprint GT3 series, I think 44 is pretty solid.

17 PRO, 14 PRO-AM, 13 SILVER. Really nice mix, good competition in each of the classes.

I may have missed it but is AM outlawed in this series now? I know they want those entries moved over to GT Sports Club, but didn't think it was compulsory.

That may also be part of the reason entries are a little lower, those AM's might be flocking to GT Sports Club instead this year

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

Up to 44 cars for the Monza entry list.

https://www.gt-world-challenge-europ...meeting_id=177

If we hadn't been spoilt by the 55-65 car grids of the BES heydays, 44 cars would be excellent.

Given the increased pressure on the series from COVID, DTM, even NLS, as well as the various sprint GT3 series, I think 44 is pretty solid.

17 PRO, 14 PRO-AM, 13 SILVER. Really nice mix, good competition in each of the classes.

I may have missed it but is AM outlawed in this series now? I know they want those entries moved over to GT Sports Club, but didn't think it was compulsory.

That may also be part of the reason entries are a little lower, those AM's might be flocking to GT Sports Club instead this year

Given how messed up SRO safety car procedures. I am fine with it too. Don't imagine they have done anything to improve that eh?

We are losing some manufacturer diversity though. I guess 2020 was the peak of it. But SRO Europe has lost Nissan and Lexus now. Almost no Acura presence accept for ICGT. McLaren, Aston Martin, Bentley is very very small. GT3 in the next year or two could be just down to the 4 German marks (Mer,Aud,Por,Bmw), and 2 Italian marks (Fer, Lamb).

British and Japanse based GT3 market starting to look very weak. USA has NO market as GM, Ford, and Chrysler still won't come to play.

[tux]

Curiously where the GTWC grid declines the GT4 grid goes from strength to strength.

I do hope GT3 continues to be the dominant force in GT racing but i cant see it for much longer. Cost along with the push towards more and more electric cars means the future looks pretty bleak.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by tux

Curiously where the GTWC grid declines the GT4 grid goes from strength to strength.

I do hope GT3 continues to be the dominant force in GT racing but i cant see it for much longer. Cost along with the push towards more and more electric cars means the future looks pretty bleak.

Not sure about that. Isn't the main WEC/Le Mans GT class moving from GTE to GT3 regs?

[tux]

Not until 2023 at the earliest by which time they’ll probably choose GT2 over GT3 😂😂

[tux]

Might be down to 42 cars for Sunday. Kujala crashed the Rinaldi Ferrari in testing this afternoon and the Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin car is withdrawn as they are racing at Barcelona in ELMS

[tux]

3 cars already required new chassis before the first practice session. Expensive.

Nobody care about this series anymore? Nobody seems to comment on any threads these days.

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by tux

3 cars already required new chassis before the first practice session. Expensive.

Nobody care about this series anymore? Nobody seems to comment on any threads these days.

I certainly love GT WC Europe. I'm in the middle of watching the pre qual on youtube right now. They have so much coverage. I need time to get through it all. I doubt I'll be done with watching the race until Monday. So commenting live won't be possible. Not even gotten to watch the NLS race yet. No intrest in ELMS will skip that. I'll try to stay off the sportscar web sites to avoid spoilers right now. Will give post race thoughts for sure. Nothing to really analyze though until race day.

Love watching these practice/qual sessions. Its car porn essentially. Just wish there was an option to have no commentary. Love John Watson, but can't listen to him over and over again via replaying it. Have to mute that and play onboard racing sounds in the background.

And that is just the racing part for me, there is yard work, enojying a nice outdoor day, watching the funeral of His Royal Highness, baseball and hockey too.

[Speed-King]

Nobody seems to comment on any threads these days.

That's (to a slightly lesser degree) the fact for most series on here, especially when it comes to race threads which used to be much busier ten years or so ago. I think it comes down to a) the forum as a whole being less popular than it used to be (at least it seems to me like that, the admins/mods can correct me if I'm wrong) and b) changing viewing habits. Again, just based on anecdote, but I don't feel like typing on a forum thread while watching a race these days.

That being said, I also think SRO-GT3 racing, especially outside the big enduros, has become a bit stale. It's always the same cars, they are all competitive and usually races are pretty close. Which is nice, but also a bit boring because there are no bigger stories anymore.

Since all the cars are built by manufacturers and are BoP'ed to be competitive, nobody has to develop their cars as they race anymore, so we don't get the excitement of teams transforming seemingly hopeless cars into race winners over the course of several seasons or of underdogs overcoming the big dominators on their own merit these days.

Say what you want about Vitaphone, but I just loved to root against them in the late GT1-years. Similarily, Porsche's years in the wilderness when Ferrari came out with the 430 GT2 were not much fun for us Porsche-fans, but it was great to see when Porsche finally became competitive again after a couple of rough seasons with the 997 RSR.

With GT3 these story lines and the associated character building really don't exist anymore and it's just season after season of pretty cars going in circles.