Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hour this weekend.......

Unbelievable conditions. Super Kudos to Audi for the AudiTv coverage.

 

Also at
http://www.youtube.com/user/gt1world?v=FGJkT3YqHo8

 

Looks like Audi will win as they did at Nurburgring and Le Mans.

 

Audi Wins Again.

 

Where are the 458 GT3s??
WEC almost no 'factory' competition, BES A LOT!
IMHO BES is THE GT world championship and not WEC with few cars in GT2 pro class.

Audi is the best!

 

Next year I think GT 1 and 2 will be gone and GT3 will be the class that survives.

We will do the VLN on September 29TH as it will count towards the FIA World Championship Alternate Energy Cup which we're in the running to win.

 

I will be the on 27th OCT, last VLN race 2012
Hope to see you back in 2013 battling with GT3 cars in Top 5

 

Ugh, I missed the whole race.

Good 'ol Horchpower.

 

Some images from Spa.

Hugo
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Nice Shots. That 458's hood hatch was defective.

 

For the first time ever, an automobile manufacturer managed to decide the three most important 24-hour races in Europe in its favor: Nürburgring (D), Le Mans (F) and now Spa-Francorchamps (B) – within just 71 days.

 

Surely Audi have no real competition ... is that really winning?

Pete

 

at Le Mans no real competition
24H Nurb + 24H Spa they have a lot!! heavily factory backed Porsches, BMWs, McLarens Mercedes and Fs (at least the AF Corse cars)

 

Pete this is GT3 only. There were Ferrari's, MaLaren's, BMW's, Viper's, Porsche, Ford Mustang's all GT3. There were no Prototypes. It was a good race.

 

Porsche does not give real support to gt3 cars because of the unfavorable BoP, which clearly favors Audis...
Michelotto's support was concentrated on the PAM Af corse entries which took the class...

 

Jim, you're more of an insider than most....I've heard rumblings that everyone (ALMS, ELMS, WEC, BES, etc) is going to adopt a uniform set of GT rules that is effectively the current GT3 spec, and we're going to see huge grids everywhere for GT-and maybe a lot of crossover between series. any truth? or just wishful thinking of some well-meaning journos?

 

The Chicken's have come home to roost and the economic collapse is effecting everything.

Grand Am Races at Indy without asses in the seats and the fact that SR can't go on with GT1 in 2013 are the new reality. The FIA realises this and also realises that GT3 is the best choice in these times that may be the new normal for many years to come.

Hybrid Race cars are much more politically correct and as we've shown can be competitive and frankly get much more out of an equal amount of fuel so I think it's likely that we'd be invited to race at an increasing number of places and that other's will go down this road especially as KERS systems become plug and play.

GT3 is definitely the Future and I do think everyone who wishes to continuing existing will adopt it.

GT3 is also better for manufactures as GT3's are a LOT closer to the cars they try to sell to customers and as Audi's success at Nurburgring and SPA proves it helps them sell cars.

The sales presence that Audi/BMW/Audi/Aston/Toyota/etc., etc. had at the Ring was incredible and clearly proves this. You can see by how seriously McLaren is taking GT3 that this is where they see the future and that they see the connection from racing GT3's to selling their cars.

Best

 

yep, I think the implosion of FIA GT1 (which was really GT3) was a wake-up call to many in sports cars. and I agree that the closer the cars are to production cars, the better for sales. not to mention that building a GT3 car is significantly cheaper than what it costs for an ALMS style RSR or C6R, for example.

any way you'll get P4/5C legal for ALMS? would love to see that thing at Sebring or Petit.

 

The only racing we're going to do is a VLN at The Ring on September 29TH as it counts towards the FIA Alternate Energy Championship Cup that we're leading in class 7 and maybe some VLN and the 24 at The Ring in 2013.

Only if we get massive sponsorship would we continue beyond that.

Converting her to street legal condition, bringing her home and driving her on Sunday would be fine for me.

 

ELMS and BES alreaddy adopted GT3 rules, ELMS added them to the game, and BES had them all along...

the rummors for ALMS are that they may be entered, but only as a second tier class to the GTEs.. (if entered, GT3s will be slowed down bellow the pace of the GTEs) reason, because the GTE ALMS manufactures don't want a bunch of over BoPed cars to ruin it for them...

so far the WEC/ACO took a firm stand that no GT3 will be allowed...

If you like BES/GT3 racing, take a look at ALMS..
you have Ferrari vs Porsche vs Corvette vs Lotus vs BMW all fighting with fully factory supported teams, and all with the exception of Ferrari run all pro all works crews...
It simply is the greatest racing there is...

While in gt3s more often then not BoP and (ringer amateur drivers) decide the victories, here it's as pure as it gets to the olden days of sportscars manufacturer racing as there is...

Don't get me wrong, there is still BoP BS in GTE racing, but to a much lesser degree, and manufacturer development of the cars really influences the balance of power..

So in closing, ALMS is currently the best GT racing there is, and the current manufacturers, Ferrari/Porsche/Corvette/BMW/Lotus have vetoed the GT3 cars from entering in direct competition...
reasons, all of the above had to follow strict rules for building their cars to be as close as they can to the road vehicles, while there is no rulebook for Gt3, you pretty much build whatever you want and the FIA will BoP it out so you can race equally (which they get wrong 99% of the time).
For example z4 race cars are not allowed in WEC /ACO/ALMS because there is no road going z4 with a v8 engine, thus it can't be legal to race....

P.S. BMW is probably the worst example for me to make, since the M3 GTR is also completely illegal by the rulebook (engine position changed, transmission moved form front to back, suspension completely changed, all ilegal in GTE, Aero completely iligal, while legal in Gt3) but it was still allowed (through a gazillion and one waiver) to race in GTE, but those were different times...

 

GT3 is the future (incl hybrids, kers etc), though running costs must go down.
GT2 will be gone soon (2014?)

GTE BoP http://private.fia.com/web/fia-public.nsf/vchp/430/$FILE/12-D0014-LMGTE-BOP.pdf?Openelement

 

Never said GTE wasn't BoPed, I believe I even mentioned it above..

As for GT2 being dead, ACO seems to disagree with you, as well as ALMS...

If it is true and GT3 is dead, then so is real manufacturer racing in GT....

And someone probably needs to tell this to Ferrari, Porsche, and Corvette because they seem to be concentrating all their development, and full factory support on GTE, with Corvette racing completely ignoring GT3, Ferrari/Michelotto offering little support but no real full factory drivers etc, and Porsche has gone on record saying it will not support the GT3 racing because of the pointlessness of GT3 BoP.. And those 3 makes are the greatest GT racing brands there are... Proven by the fact that between them they have taken 90% off all GT class wins at Le Mans for the past 12 years..

And Le Mans simply is the greatest prize in sportscast and GT racing by a long shot

 

I agree. In the US ALMS isn't even shown on regular TV anymore. Audi dominates Le Mans and McLaren's going into GT3 because wisely they see that as the future. The manufactures follow the crowds and the largest crowd this year was at the 24 hours of Nurburgring. The 24 Hours of Spa was a great race this year. Once again Audi dominated.


You're right about the cost. They have to and will come down. Using Pro/Am's to bring down the cost and placing them in a separate class is silly. NART was often Pro/Am but they seemed to manage to race with the big boys. Ferrari's first win at Le Mans (Overall for those that remember when Ferrari still did that) was Pro/Am.

We're on the dyno this week and then will talk to the organizers. We're not coming back in 2013 unless they give us a real chance to run with the big factory teams.

Best

 

That's what happens when the organizers decide who wins and who loses Enjoy.

Answer this, if Audi was ruining the restrictors that would put it in your power range, the same weight, and the same fuel tank, would they still beat you at VLN and NBR? And if not, doesn't it feel that all the hard work you and your engineers put into the car was made redundant by a few swift BoP council decisions?