2011 12 hour - Open to GT racing

[Westie]

Well it is as predicted, the GT cars are coming to the 12 hour next year.

That means some very special race cars will enter, but I'm sure alot of the existing cars will leave, with no hope of competing for an outright win.

http://www.bathurst12hour.com.au/latest_news.asp?navstr=16&Pagecat=16

I don't agree with this as I have said before. Another example of money coming to the top.

I'm fairly sure we won't enter again unfortunately(so therefore no awesome week next year), but I'm sure the racing and telecast will be pretty good to watch.

[35R]

i have to say i agree. they've just handed the outright win to a GT car. Will be interesting to see how they handle 12hrs but sad to see that those who have built the event to what it is are now out in the cold, impossible to win outright and unlikely to get much TV exposure.

[Aeron]

I loooove the GT cars, but I'd like to see the 12hour stay as it is with the production cars. Not a good move really...

[NickS]

I'm in 2 minds ... I'd love to watch the GT's at Bathurst but I do agree it's a little tough on the guys that have supported the event for the last 3 or so years.

Let's be honest though ... is 10 Evo's at the front of the field really that fantastic to watch ? Until the BMW's came through the field that's pretty much what we had this year ... plus if you only bothered turning up if you're in contention for the outright win there wouldn't be much of a field there. Most of the cars that have entered over the last 3 years wouldn't have given winning even a remote thought.

I feel for teams like AEM but I think it's needed to ensure the survival of the event ...

[davo.]

Yeah doesn't seem many production car teams support the event. I don't think they will get over 30 odd GT and production cars for next years race at the moment. In reading e motorsport news, it was stated that 25 teams that entered 33 cars this year will probably not enter the event next year.

Will AEM think about entering the 6 hour production car race at Eastern Creek instead?

[Scotty]

I think this is a hard one...

Like Nick pointed out, if it remains a Evo dominated, albiet with BMW winning this year, then the spectator and TV viewers will be less and less interested.

so its natural progression is to step up the anti.

Unfortunately for us, if we were to enter the Evo again the likelyhood of an outright win would be much slimmer. Though the target would then change to just a class win, to which we achieved this year.

What are the lap time differences of GT to production? It could cause some challenges, especially when we found the Yaris couldnt keep up with the Pace car this year.

Scotty

[NickS]

It could cause some challenges, especially when we found the Yaris couldnt keep up with the Pace car this year.

Scotty

:lmao: ... are you serious ?

That made me laugh for some reason ... a lot !

[35R]

the top GT cars could probably be as quick as a v8 supercar (or a few seconds slower) nothing else would come close. would be interesting to see though, because they've probably never done an enduro before.

[Kyle]

I would like to see what they do to the fezzas to make them run for 12 hours constantly..

Sure in other catergories overseas not a problem, but here we only have sprint races for them currently

[Westie]

the top GT cars could probably be as quick as a v8 supercar (or a few seconds slower) nothing else would come close. would be interesting to see though, because they've probably never done an enduro before.

Last year David Wall was doing 2min 10sec in the Porsche GT3 Cup S over the Bathurst weekend, so yeah, as quick as a V8.

I agree with the general concensus that it will be good to watch GT cars, im just sad that we more than likely will not enter again. As we have always been there for the outright win.

I might haev to convince the old man to hand over the keys to the EVO to run some supersprints :)