Supercars out, real Supercars in at AGP?

[inpitlane]

The V8 Supercars wont be at Albert Park next year, but according to one of the men behind the Australian GT Championship the FIA GT3 will.
In an interview on tonights episode of In Pit Lane Terry Little says that Stephan Rattel has signed a deal with the AGP board for the exotic sportscars to become a major support category at next years race.
A spokesperson for the AGP refused to comment saying that no announcements or confirmation of any of the on track event will be announced until the official launch on November 13.
The interview will be posted on the In Pit Lane website ASAP.

[RotorFan]

Fantastic if its true! The GT3 is not the most professional of categories but hopefully its a precursor to bringing out GT1/GT2! It'd be great for the growth of Australian GT.

[Pro Racer]

good news.

[6.213km]

Pending the official announcement .... I just may need to book some tickets me thinks!

[racer69]

Originally Posted by RotorFan

Fantastic if its true! The GT3 is not the most professional of categories but hopefully its a precursor to bringing out GT1/GT2! It'd be great for the growth of Australian GT.

GT3 in many ways has outshone it's big brother, the FIA GT Championship, this year, providing bigger grids and some close racing. It does boast some professional teams (BMS Scuderia Italia run Aston Martins in the GT3 series as well as the FIA GT), and very good driver, of course Allan Simonson won a race on the opening weekend of the series this year at Silverstone.


A real pity though that the historic Formula 5000s didn't get a gig, i got my hopes up when i saw the heading

[Chatters]

Cool, can't wait to see that interview. Would be awesome to see the GT3's there!

[pete55]

I was aware that it may happen about a month ago. I was told there would be a race at the AGP and at Bathurst but have not heard anything in last few weeks.

[Woolley]

I was at the Silverstone race, and my thoughts then were 'at last'. Sportscar racing as it should be. Exotic looking, fantastic sounding cars running in huge packs and changing position almost every corner. Brilliant stuff.

They'll find Melbourne a little confined, but if the standards have been maintained they'll be a real treat.

[inpitlane]

The interview with Terry Little is now up on the In Pit Lane podcast. You can either subscribe via iTunes or go direct to feed://www.videobomb.com/rss/users/show/inpitlane

[mmciau]

Now a prediction!!!!!!

The attendances will fall away dramatically for the meeting and Big Red will come out and find all the excuses in the world!!

Adelaide went through a "lull" in the 1990's and that's when the SA Goivernment got disinterested and of course we all know what happened!

So if the VIC Governemnt get sick and tired of under-writing an event, it will GO

Mike

[D.R.T.]

Why would attendences drop so dramatically mmciau ?

[Notso Swift]

He thinks the world revolves around V8's

It does, but they are 2.4 litre's and rev to 20,000

[pete55]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

Why would attendences drop so dramatically mmciau ?

I guess he is one of those who thinks that if V8 Supercars aren't there nobody will turn up.

[cptkablamo]

I think that is a great move. The GT3 series is a much closer fit to F1 than V8 supercars ever were...I hope it works well for them...

[bazil]

Originally Posted by mmciau

Now a prediction!!!!!!

The attendances will fall away dramatically for the meeting and Big Red will come out and find all the excuses in the world!!

Adelaide went through a "lull" in the 1990's and that's when the SA Goivernment got disinterested and of course we all know what happened!

So if the VIC Governemnt get sick and tired of under-writing an event, it will GO

Mike

I like predictions and yours is interesting...

Perhaps if it turns out to be true Sydney may just end up with its Homebush race with F1 and Supercars. I hope Morris is reading this.

[Trev Campbell]

Originally Posted by mmciau

Now a prediction!!!!!!

The attendances will fall away dramatically for the meeting and Big Red will come out and find all the excuses in the world!!

Adelaide went through a "lull" in the 1990's and that's when the SA Goivernment got disinterested and of course we all know what happened!

So if the VIC Governemnt get sick and tired of under-writing an event, it will GO

Mike

Mike, the government didn't get sick of it, The opposition were using the cost of the event to stick it to the Government, even though the event was good for the state. Politians will use anything at their disposal to make the other side look bad. Then when the Vic government drove up to Bernie's door with a truck load of money he used the bickering as an excuse to move the event to Melbourne.

[racer69]

Presumebly the Australian GT Championship cars will fill the grid out at this event, as it will be a non-championship event for the Europeans.

It is mentioned in Autosport that the deal is for 25 European-based GT3 cars to make an appearance for four 10-lap races, the last of which will be on Sunday morning.

[D.R.T.]

Yeah hopefully this will work as an incentive for Australian GT regulars to upgrade to a GT3 quicker.

Clipsal, AGP, BIMF, A1 GP, 500 km Sandown enduro plus the CAMS series makes an attractive proposition.

[00 XR8]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

Clipsal, AGP, BIMF, A1 GP, 500 km Sandown enduro plus the CAMS series makes an attractive proposition.

You are not wrong there racer.

Hopefully some of the European teams that come over here next March don't actually intend on taking the cars back home again............. and instead sell a couple to locals.......

It would be great to see a couple of Astons in our Championship.

[mmciau]

Originally Posted by Trev Campbell

Mike, the government didn't get sick of it, The opposition were using the cost of the event to stick it to the Government, even though the event was good for the state. Politians will use anything at their disposal to make the other side look bad. Then when the Vic government drove up to Bernie's door with a truck load of money he used the bickering as an excuse to move the event to Melbourne.

After Bannon went Arnold was not greatly interested and did not seek to renew the contract with Bernie. big red saw what was on and with jeff's blessing got the event.

Arnold was more interested in Spanish language than a F1 race!!

Significant numbers were keen on the tintops at F1 Adelaide.

It was the Adelaide Race Format that Melbourne has followed quite closely in format. The V8 tintops have an important role to play to "infill" the program as there is less F1 cars track time now than in Adelaide's time

BTW, how much did F1 lose this year??

Mike

[Notso Swift]

Originally Posted by mmciau

It was the Adelaide Race Format that Melbourne has followed quite closely in format. The V8 tintops have an important role to play to "infill" the program as there is less F1 cars track time now than in Adelaide's time

Mike

F1 programs are not set by the organisers of a GP
The cads is (which support classes) but not the schedule

[bazil]

Originally Posted by mmciau

After Bannon went Arnold was not greatly interested and did not seek to renew the contract with Bernie. big red saw what was on and with jeff's blessing got the event.

Arnold was more interested in Spanish language than a F1 race!!

Significant numbers were keen on the tintops at F1 Adelaide.

It was the Adelaide Race Format that Melbourne has followed quite closely in format. The V8 tintops have an important role to play to "infill" the program as there is less F1 cars track time now than in Adelaide's time

BTW, how much did F1 lose this year??

Mike

It should also probably be mentioned that when F1 left Adelaide The world did not end because the v8 Supercars stayed and the event is now as big crowd wise as the F1 ever was or is and Adelaide is second only to Indy on the Gold Coast for total Crowd figures. Now before all the Crowd number experts get on here and flap on about fudged numbers let me set you straight about 1 thing. I attend every Supercar round, Indy and F1 regardless of what the blithering few will try and tell you those are the biggest crowds and F1 or no F1 Melbourne would draw the same and so would Sydney if it ever happened. As for GT3 or any other boutique motorsport form the best advise I could give in Australia is to follow the lead set by Carrera Cup and try to be the best support catorgorie you can and support the series that the "majority" of Australian motorsport fans support "v8's".

[pete55]

Will Carrera Cup continue on the V8 Program? Carrera Cup seems to be not as vibrant as it once was and i don't know what happened to the promised 25 cars. Might be a bit like V8 Supercars and we have less cars each year.

[bazil]

[QUOTE=pete55]Will Carrera Cup continue on the V8 Program? Carrera Cup seems to be not as vibrant as it once was and i don't know what happened to the promised 25 cars. Might be a bit like V8 Supercars and we have less cars each year.[/Q


A couple of licences vouched for this year fell thru because of funding issues at the last minute and the huge growth of the Development series attracted a few potential customers away from Carrera. That said I still think the Porsche series is a good one and a very good alternative if not running a Supercar.
The Development series has benifeted substantially from the extra number of rounds it has recently had on the main game program.

[bathurst]

Isnt that old hat that the V8s wouldn't be at the F1 GP next year........... Bring on the F1s!!! We'll be there V8s or not...