[FIA GT] Blancpain Endurance Series 2011

[Speed-King]

Speedweek.de has an article on Ratel's new endurance series: Here
(Google did a surprisingly good job at translating that one )

[Deleted]

Nice... but they just completely ignored GT2?

[Speed-King]

I think it's really the other way around: GT2 ignored them.

[AstonGeoff]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

I think it's really the other way around: GT2 ignored them.

Nope, SRO ignored GT2 whilst busy setting up the GT1 World Championship, by the time they looked at GT2 it was toooo late and teams had gone off to LMS or Int GT Open

[kyoung]

Looks like Stink Weasel wants another series where no talent moneybag owner/drivers are allowed the illusion they can actually compete with talented drivers. At least the SRO is consistent, consistently bad. Get rid of the idiotic driver ratings and success ballast, if you have talent and a fast car you can win, if you don’t you can always find another hobby. Or better yet create a series where rich losers can race each other.

[NaBUru38]

So now SRO will try to attract entries from... the FIA GT3 and GT4 sprint race championships? I wonder if teams will try to do both.

Now, please all let's pray for ACO not to add GT3 / GTC to the Euro LMS.

[NaBUru38]

Oops! Wrong timing.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

So now SRO will try to attract entries from... the FIA GT3 and GT4 sprint race championships? I wonder if teams will try to do both.

It's a short schedule, so it should be possible to run this one alongside another project - and all the tracks are located quite conveniently for teams from Germany, Benelux or Northern France.
Phoenix already said that they'd like to try their hand at this and I think other VLN or GT-Masters-teams might follow.

Planetlemans.com has all the facts available in proper English now: Here

Stink Weasel

And forchrissake will you please stop denigrating people by comparing them to vermin? That's something a guy with a weird beard liked to do some seventy years ago

[kyoung]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

And forchrissake will you please stop denigrating people by comparing them to vermin? That's something a guy with a weird beard liked to do some seventy years ago

I’m sorry if I offended you, I could have used the obvious “rat” that has been used many times before by other forum members, but I thought stink weasel was a more humorous description of an ego maniac who names a racing organization after himself in shameless self promotion, a person (not people) that clearly panders to all the things that destroy good racing (IMHO). Don’t try to spin this into something it is not, I have a low opinion of Ratel, you may love him and think he is the second coming and that’s OK, just realize I am making fun of a “person” not “people”. How about pandering misguided ego maniac, does that meet your test?

Instead of addressing Ratel’s handle, why not comment on success ballast or driver ratings do you have an opinion on this?

[Speed-King]

You didn't offend me, I just think it's bad taste, just like the "rat"-thing. Maybe that's culture-specific and it's me who should adapt to the "host"-culture of this board, but then, sportscar racing often prides itself for its upper-class demographics and I think it should be possible for us to discuss these matters in a civilized and respectful manner...

But anyway:
- There's nothing indicating an appliance of success ballast in the new GT endurance series in either article at Speedweek and planetlemans so I can only comment on that in a wider sense: The big question is: What's the alternative? To me there are two: Tampering with the rules all season long or having boring races. This year they have applied rules-tampering and success-ballast, and I am more than ready to agree that they have been rather heavy-handed at times, especially in the GT1-series during the first half of the season.
Few series can survive on all out competition without any regards to parity anymore since that's too hard to sell to spectators, sponsors and funded drivers. So a transparent system of success-ballast is something I'd definitely prefer over arbitratry technical regulation changes during the season.

- as for driver ratings: I think what they are trying to do in this case is rather smart if they do it right: This time, they'll allow full-pro-lineups. There are plenty of series out there that have a "Gentleman's Trophy" or something like that, so this isn't like the approach taken here is anything radically new.
The important thing to me is, that they have a kind of upwards-compatability in the series, i.e. all teams and drivers in the pro-am-class should be allowed to score points towards the overall "Pro-Cup"-championship, but not the other way around. If they handle it that way, I am all for it. If they want to have truly separate classes it's not all that bright, as it will result in very small numbers of cars per class...

[Joe Taylor]

Originally Posted by kyoung

Looks like Stink Weasel wants another series where no talent moneybag owner/drivers are allowed the illusion they can actually compete with talented drivers.

Without Gentleman Drivers, there would be no sportscar series of any description.

[kyoung]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

sportscar racing often prides itself for its upper-class demographics

You lost me there, I work for a living and for some reason it does not hinder my appreciation for the sport.

Originally Posted by Speed-King

I think it should be possible for us to discuss these matters in a civilized and respectful manner...

I have never, and will never treat anyone on this board in a disrespectful manner, that being said guys like Ratel and Ecclestone are crying out to be made fun of. If stinky becomes a member of the board I may have to adjust.

Originally Posted by Speed-King

But anyway:
- There's nothing indicating an appliance of success ballast in the new GT endurance series in either article at Speedweek and planetlemans so I can only comment on that in a wider sense: The big question is: What's the alternative? To me there are two: Tampering with the rules all season long or having boring races. This year they have applied rules-tampering and success-ballast, and I am more than ready to agree that they have been rather heavy-handed at times, especially in the GT1-series during the first half of the season.
Few series can survive on all out competition without any regards to parity anymore since that's too hard to sell to spectators, sponsors and funded drivers. So a transparent system of success-ballast is something I'd definitely prefer over arbitratry technical regulation changes during the season.

- as for driver ratings: I think what they are trying to do in this case is rather smart if they do it right: This time, they'll allow full-pro-lineups. There are plenty of series out there that have a "Gentleman's Trophy" or something like that, so this isn't like the approach taken here is anything radically new.
The important thing to me is, that they have a kind of upwards-compatability in the series, i.e. all teams and drivers in the pro-am-class should be allowed to score points towards the overall "Pro-Cup"-championship, but not the other way around. If they handle it that way, I am all for it. If they want to have truly separate classes it's not all that bright, as it will result in very small numbers of cars per class...

Transparent thorough testing at the beginning of the season and locking the cars in is the way to go, not loading cars with ballast so some incompetent can win. You want to race with talented drivers you take your licks and get better or leave. But as we have discussed before competence is needed to balance the cars or you will have VLN “99” all over again, which of course was corrected the next year to the desired effect, putting Porsche back on top, but that’s another argument/discussion.

[kyoung]

Originally Posted by Joe Taylor

Without Gentleman Drivers, there would be no sportscar series of any description.

I have no problem with gentlemen drivers, only drivers who think other competitors should be artificially slowed so they can win, that (IMHO) is not racing.

[TF110]

Might as well let GT1 become apart of this as well. I don't understand the sprint format with two one hour races. I say a one hour qualifying race and at least a two hour 'sprint' race.

[Lola T70]

My question is "do we really need another series right now?"

Just seems there is only so much pie and everyone wants too much of it.

[Acid09]

Another SRO series that will get no media coverage or any recognition outside the sports car world.

[d.rocky]

For me gt/sportscar racing is endurance...

Ratel shouldnt be coming up with new championships for 'teams that want to run their cars in races longer than the current one-hour sprint races' the GT1 ect ect championships should have longer races than an 1 measly hour!
Cant help think theres no need for this... time will tell.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Another SRO series that will get no media coverage or any recognition outside the sports car world.

Just like every single ACO series (apart from Le Mans)

[I Rosputnik]

Wait, I thought the purpose of this series was for GT2?

Anyway, would it make more sense to use the GT1's for this series? 10 to 15 two to three hour races spanning the globe for the fastest GT cars with the Spa 24 hours as the crown in the jewel?

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by I Rosputnik

Wait, I thought the purpose of this series was for GT2?

That was the plan, initially, but Ratel found no GT2-teams that were willing to compete there...

Anyway, would it make more sense to use the GT1's for this series? 10 to 15 two to three hour races spanning the globe for the fastest GT cars with the Spa 24 hours as the crown in the jewel?

Cool as it sounds, that would be massively expensive. Hans Reiter says that the sprint format has cut running costs in half - and I guess that's the only reason why they have 20+ GT1s on the grid this year, whereas they were struggling to get a dozen when they had the endurance format.

[TF110]

The economy isn't great all over the world. So yeah, it doesn't surprise me not many interested parties are involved. Same I guess can be said with ACO racing. Not many teams can afford 24hour racing. Most the competitive GTE are factory teams. At least in ALMS.

[rich07]

Another SRO series? Good luck on trying to fill the grid.

[NaBUru38]

The longer races are, the harder it is to broadcast it in television. That's why the ILMC won't go further than seven 1000km+ races. To have 11 or 14 races, these must be shorter than F1's 120 minutes.

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Just like every single ACO series (apart from Le Mans)

So the ALMS dosen't get mayor media coverage?

And the LMS had to start from scratch while the FIA GT had a working base with the SuperRacing weekend that Ratel destroyed because he thought the GTs would be better of on their own...which completely failed because ever since then, media interest and coverage in Ratel's series is going downhill.

His precious world championship is a complete no-show in the media world but of course we have to label it a success because everything this man does seems to be a success in his book.

[Dauer 962]

Originally Posted by Acid09

And the LMS had to start from scratch while the FIA GT had a working base with the SuperRacing weekend that Ratel destroyed because he thought the GTs would be better of on their own...which completely failed because ever since then, media interest and coverage in Ratel's series is going downhill.

Just to get the facts right: It was the FIA GT, which was kicked out of the Super Racing Weekend, not otherwise. And before 2011, the FIA GT was on it´s own.

And also the LMS, or the LMES how it was once called, didn´t start from scratch but took over the prototype part from the FIA SRWC.

So please keep the facts straight and don´t create any false facts.