Spa 24 hour

[pink69]

The Spa 24 hour , usually a race for touring cars ,will be a round of the FIA GT championship this year. Due to the spiraling costs there will be no Lister which essentially ends their title hopes if Labre do well as it is double points. there is also doubts about how many cars will finish in a smallish field. but should this touring car race be turned into a Gt race or remain as a Touring car event? I don't see how this race fits into the calender! Why have a 24 hour race in a series when the all other races are 3 hours and there are only two different classes!

[racer69]

I think it should have stayed as a touring car race. Sportscars/GT cars can race in the Le Man 24 hours, Petit Le Mans and so on ( I know Lister and Rafenelli Ferrari's aren't eligible ). With a small field for this years race, i think it should have become a round of the ETC, as there are Super Tourers and Super Production series in the ETC, and a good field could have been assembled. If the GT cars want an big endurance, why not bring back the Spa 1000km

[Heeltoe6]

i also voted for touring cars because of tradition and also because it's the only endurance touirng car race i can think of, aside form bathurst.

[hgb]

The grid of just 40 cars is a big disappointment for me. I really thought that the grid would have been bigger. With the (quite) small grid and a number of cars which won't stand long (Lambo, Ferrari... sorry... IMHO) I fear that it will get a bit boring in the end because only Porsches and Vipers will survive. All others won't have a chance (or am I wrong ?).
Why not put two championships together. Solution 1st would be to put the FIA GT and the FIA SCC together. That would be very interesting and a real crowd puller (2nd LM). The 2nd solution would be to put the FIA GT and the local Belcars together. That again would mean that Zolder had to be scipped... not good. Mmh, in the end I fear that it's better to preserve the 24h of Spa as a touring car race.

[redshoes]

As a Touring Car fan I would much prefer this to remain a TC event, especially if we are only talking about 40 or so GT entries. If you include Group N+ (SuperProduction cars) and maybe Group N there must be enough touring car teams put there.

I've posted a link to this thread in the TC forum to see what reaction it gets.

[SL]

It all depends on the avaiable entries, as stated before quite likely the winning car will be the Porsche or Viper that does not hit problems. There are not enough GT's at the moment to get a good field, perhaps due to several differant formula's.

Keep it Touring, at least for the time being.

Simon

[pink69]

I agree hgb, the FIA sportscar and FIA GT should become one series. The ALMS is the best series in the world because it has a mixture of class's, like the Le Mans race. This means increased fields, the possiblity of the Audis and Panoz coming to the FIA, which would boost numbers. We could see the Courage racing more often, and somewhere for the MG's and Bentley to race. I dont think MG really want to go to America or they would already begun racing in the ALMS. An european based series would suit the two british teams more.

[hgb]

After all it was quite a good race despite the worse than LeMans weather conditions (at least on sunday). The field of just around 40 cars could have been a lot bigger if the race was better scheduled. To choose a weekend with GT races around the world was not the best idea.
Further the organisation put off the Nissan NSX by changing the regulations. That meant that the Nissan had to drive with a restrictor which are a loss of around 30hp. So the team decided to withdraw because they didn't see a chance. When the organisation realised that the field would be at only around 40 cars (82 were focused) they short noticed The NSX team and said that they don't need to install the restrictor. By then it was to late and the NSX team didn't turn up. What an organisational mess.
On the other hand there were teams like VdeV Racing which were listed with just one car but had two cars on the circuit.
Apart from that the actual race was good and I think if they overcome those shortcomings the whole event is better than the touring car races of the previous years.
There was lots and lots of overtaking action and mouthwatering close fighting that makes me a regular for the years to come.
BTW, congratulations to Larbre. With that win they finalised Lister's hopes for the title.