British GT 2024

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by GroupOfOne

Nice to see the Ferrari and some (extra) variety to the grid. From the original story should be a couple more announcements next week along with the full entry list.

Long range forecast looking like it might be wet, which is less good to see!

Yes, Autosport suggested yesterday that the total entry will probably be 44 cars.

[LC2guy]

Entry List is now out on BGT site;

https://www.britishgt.com/images/Bri...22-04-2024.pdf

[dwh43scale]

For any spectator photographers out there, you may wish to know that there is new higher fencing at Luffield in front of the new grandstand (you'd need a cherry picker to shoot over it ...). The fence line has also been amended at Brooklands but with care a panning shot can be achieved through the fence. There was no access in front of Escapade (and the old bank that you walked on seems to have gone (for good ?). There is a longish walk round the back of the extensive Escapade development. Silverstone website shows open grandstands and facilities - these seem to be between Luffield and Copse only. No indication that the link road is open or closed, but the Porsche Centre bridge seems to be showing no public access. No indication of whether the footbridge between the Wing and Hotel is accessible.

[Larsen]

Having just had a quick google search in regards to new fencing around Luffield, what on earth were they thinking?

[dwh43scale]

To stop Just Stop Oil protesters ? Anything track side will tend to be relatively slow speed.

Hopefully not a sign of things to come.

[flatlandsman]

Just yet another reason to just avoid the place, it is basically now a one event a year venue, everything else to them is just a pain in the arse.

I live half an hour away and after reading this and other comments from elsewhere I will not be attending this meeting, this place is about as welcoming as a prison.

I do hope eventually f1 fades away a little and they go begging to events like this to make them some money, but that shows no sign of happening, hence they seem to treat everything else as a pain in the backside!

Their approach to fans is so poor at times, so I will take my business elsewhere

[Truckosaurus]

I quite agree Flatty, for a place that styles itself as 'The Home of British Motorsport' it doesn't do a very good job for anything other than F1.

The most obvious sign they don't care about other events is the lack of bridges to the pits - not rebuilding the one by the old pits when the track was widened, and not putting a bridge (or tunnel) to get to the new pits or Wing Building from the 'outside'.

[Hedley Verity]

To me the most obvious of their total disregard for people who are so vulgar as to actually pay for their own tickets is that they always open the wrong Woodcote grandstand. I don’t as contemplating going but between the weather forecast, being treated as an inconvenience by the venue and the cost I’m going to watch it on the telly.
Oulton BSB and Spa WEC over the following 2 weekends will be far more fun experiences

[flatlandsman]

The sadder aspect to this is, every time this subject comes up the vast majority of people do not like the place.

Yet every year nearly half a million people swarm there to watch probably the most boring, predictable and turgid rubbish, and pay massively over the odds to do so. SO in all honesty why would Silverstone give a toss about any paying punters for anything else.


I aim to treat them with the contempt they treat those half a million people every year.

[v8supes]

Same, the only reason id go there now is if GTWC Endurance and/or WEC/ELMS came back, i wouldn't attend for anything else.

I was close to going this weekend because the grid is great and the support races offer fantastic action but instead im going to Brands the week after for GTWC Europe even though the support races are not as good and it will cost me more in fuel/travel time.

[dwh43scale]

Saturday shots https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBo6Uw

[skycafe]

Fun stuff! Thankd!

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by Truckosaurus

I quite agree Flatty, for a place that styles itself as 'The Home of British Motorsport' it doesn't do a very good job for anything other than F1.

The "Home of British Motorsport" but, in my personal opinion, the least spectator friendly circuit in the UK, by a considerable margin.

Overrated, overpriced and absolutely soulless.

[v8supes]

Vanthoor and Leung dominated the race but on their last pit stop they couldn't get fuel into the car.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by v8supes

Vanthoor and Leung dominated the race but on their last pit stop they couldn't get fuel into the car.

It led to an exciting race in the end; almost a dream comeback for Mardenborough, but Clutton was a bit too eager and both ended up fighting for Pro-Am honours rather than the overall win. As an occasional British GT viewer, how often does a Silver-Am win overall?

Also of note, Gordie Mutch picking up a podium in GT4, he's one to watch out for.

[Akrapovic]

The reintroduction of the FCY to BGT was an excellent decision.

[dwh43scale]

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBoaNY

Images from Raceday ...

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by dwh43scale

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBoaNY

Images from Raceday ...

Nice set!

[flatlandsman]

I was planning on going, as I live close by, but decided against it, due to the weather and other plans, I did catch a few laps near the end and the desperate driving was not great, I saw some footage of a McLAren basically diving into the track at Maggotts on Saturday that left me feeling the driving standards in this series are not very good, I think a lot of very rich men need to spend as much time learning to drive as they do making money sadly. It is always going to be the case with rich amateurs, but some of the driving I saw in clips was very, very poor. But I guess that is the same in any Pro/AM series.

For me it is the biggest downside o0f GT and endurance racing.

[Truckosaurus]

The curse of those on the wrong side of the wallet/skill ratio is that they bankroll the sport (even F1 has its share of pay drivers) so are a necessary evil.

Perhaps the bigger issue is that a glorified club series like British GT (no offence ) allows the hiring of world class professionals so that a less talented Gentleman might find himself at the sharp end of proceedings no matter how modest their efforts.

Perhaps there should be a cap on the quality of the pros, or an age limit, so the seats are taken by talented youngsters looking to make a name for themselves, not moonlighting factory drivers.

[flatlandsman]

I am guessing Lello is quite happy to be being paid probably 50k or more to let some chunky bloke think he has a chance of winning! Personally I find it quite embarrassing.

[J Jay]

Or his personal opinion is irrelevant because he is doing what his employer says, which is generally how jobs work?

Also, he's been a genuinely good driver partner for Boguvslavskiy for a number of years, so he's used to working with a slower, "true" amateur driver.

I don't see anything embarrassing with any of that.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

I am guessing Lello is quite happy to be being paid probably 50k or more to let some chunky bloke think he has a chance of winning! Personally I find it quite embarrassing.

I don't think our opinions of what sort of agreement wealthy amateurs have with teams and pro co-drivers makes any difference.

The series gets better every year, the pro-am element is arguably the main reason for it.

There would not be 20 odd top notch GT3 cars in the series otherwise. Plus the GT4 element has its own intrigue and drana.

In an ideal world I might like to think we could have a GT3 only British series with all pro line ups as well as the pro-ams and a separate GT4 series supporting it but that isn't going to happen.

Rather than knocking the amateurs we might be better off pushing the organisers to seek out more of them and then we would get a few more top pros and maybe a few more different makes.

[flatlandsman]

Personally after witnessing the first two rounds some of the incidents have left the racing very poor at times actually meaning a lot of safety car and yellow flag running.

This is not great for tv or people attending, in fact at Oulton you could literally see people just leaving the track after about 10 minutes of seeing this going on.

This is what happens when you put very rich men with a let's say an average amount of skill into very tricky to drive GT cars on very tricky circuits./ I do not know if you have tried, but trying to get round Oulton or Donington in a sim is far harder than trying to get round Spa or Monza!!

I have no issue whatsoever with the class mix, I do however think that maybe GT3 is not really suited to most venues in the UK, GT4 is fine, but I think at times GT3 has almost outgrown UK tracks.

I will certainly knock people out of their depth, as they just have egos that tell them they are fine, sorry but no. Some of them are very good, as good as pro's just slower, but some of them, sorry should not be anywhere near this level, but it has always been the way and that is how we are here.

[Bcarr6]

I don't really understand any of the complaints above.

British GT has long been exclusively Pro-Am. Nothing new.

Am's arent as quick as Pros, and they make more mistakes. Nothing new.

The UK has some wonderfully challenging circuits. Nothing new.

All of the above add to the charm and character of British GT.

Look at it on the flip side for all those points:

Pro-Am gives us mixed abilities there for greater variability. We can see from all PRO classes and series that Pro's have very small variances between them in their speed. Am's have huge difference... So actually a good Am makes a big difference than having the very best Pro.

So we have a race of two halves, the Am's fight and the order mixes, then its often scrapped and a new order emerges when the Pros arrive. This leads to overtaking...

Am's make mistakes... Well good. Look, AI could drive these cars round very precisely often without error. That sounds horribly boring to me. Mistakes, incidents, safety cars, all feed the overall entertainment factor of the races. The trick is how quickly marshals and track workers can deal with incidents.

Tracks... God forbid we have tracks with character, challenge, and quirks.

Maybe try watching a different series? Best thing I can suggest