What do you think about GT1?

[rallyrazz]

well we're 3 rounds down, and I was wondering what people are thinking about the new FIA GT1 World championship. Anything that your liking or anything you think needs changing, post it here

[dj4monie]

I've always been a fan of the ground pounding GT1 cars, their wings have been clipped a bit in a effort to curb cost I suppose and to have some parity.

The shortest of the races seems to peeve off some fans of traditional endurance sports car racing. But that's was never Ratel's intention to compete with the ALMS or LMS, but to offer sports car fans something different.

Also its about money; if your buying time on TV (like the ALMS does), then the less time you have to buy may mean the more races you can broadcast live.

In any event, the racing is good and competitive. We could go with a bit longer races. Maybe a one hour qualifying race on Saturday and then a 2 hour race on Sunday just so we have some more strategy played out.

John Hindbaugh is one of the biggest naysayers in the media and quite vocal of his disapproval of the series, which is mostly based on opinion, not facts.

The fact is the racing for those that have watched it has been good and close. Brno was perhaps the worst race in terms of competitiveness and passing, its notoriously hard to pass there.

But the series offers a full plate of racing, when you add the European GT3 series and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo; that's 3 hours of racing per day over a weekend, not bad!

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Like what Ratel has done to beef up series in terms cars/manufacturers but the 1 hour races are a no no for a 'top' series. I would go far as to say it's a mockery. Still, can't fault the competiveness and perhaps the equalisation of the cars might be suspect.

[tf109b]

I think it's great. Maybe 2 hours would be better for a feature race, but I think it's good racing. I hope to see more manufacturers though. And the cars should produce more downforce than what they do. I hope there's room for technical development in the series in the future. I say it's looks rather successful, there have been plenty of people in the stands from the races I've watched online. Brno had a lot of people. And it's good that they go around the world as well. I hope they add more races and maybe have some back to back race weekends.

[Eurotech]

At least they seem to have sorted out the equalisation problems, 6 different Manufacturers in the top 6 in Brno race 1

I do think we should have the 2 hour races on the sunday and PLEASE bring back the Spa 24 Hours for GT1

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by wedge Like what Ratel has done to beef up series in terms cars/manufacturers but the 1 hour races are a no no for a 'top' series. I would go far as to say it's a mockery. Still, can't fault the competiveness and perhaps the equalisation of the cars might be suspect.

Sez who? Where is the rule that says a race should be at least 2 hours?

F1 races have always been about 2 and half hours either by laps or timed events. Nobody is asking for longer events.

Back before TV became the fixture it is now, most racing was a few hours (save for NASCAR).

But since Free To Air TV and then the maturity of Pay TV which then had to fill all those 200-300 channels with "something" was willing to pay series to show races on their channel. This is how ESPN grew to be the leader in Motorsports in a few short years. Most racing wasn't shown live, it was tape delayed by a few days/weeks or not shown at all.

Now that ESPN wet everybody's appetite for motorsports, we now demand everything be shown on TV, live. But the facts are F1 and NASCAR are one of the few touring racing series that does not pay for its time on TV. The networks pay the series for the rights to show the programing on their channel(s).

If you remember, one of the reasons Fox purchased controlling interest in Speedvision was to pitch to NASCAR who recently signed a lucrative long term deal with Fox (and NBC) that it could offer NASCAR Races on Speedvision and NFL style post/pre race shows. Speedvision had developed into this niche channel that covered racing, some of which was seen on "Thursday Night Thunder" (for those that remember that) and European Racing not normally shown on American TV. Speevision's (now Speed that Fox bought out Comcast and the original investors) modestly sized by very LOUD fanbase wanted no part of an All-NASCAR Channel and threaten to drop the channel. Since NASCAR didn't like the idea of having NASCAR races on a limited access premium channel (its demographics are not as affluent as those on Speedvision) they felt it wasn't a good idea. Fox now stuck with a niche Auto Racing channel decided to offer NASCAR programing along with its diverse selection of other racing.

But as you have seen Speed has slowly turned into a "Not Quite" NASCAR Channel. To Dropping WRC and cutting back on its coverage of 24hrs of Le Mans (I believe that was 2006) in which the modest but LOUD fanbase said NO. They relented until the channel was faced with some real financial concerns to showing the entire race. They now go through this elaborate dance of sending the booth crews to Le Mans for the week leading up to the race. Only the pit reporters and their camera crews remain to do the race. Diffy and the rest of them fly back to NC to call the race from remote, like they do the F1 broadcast. The parts of the race that would interfere with its NASCAR related programing are now shifted to its web site for streaming.

This hatched the idea for Speed 2: Online Network which details have gone silent pretty much since it was announced. There is a bit more news out there , if your interest look here - http://www.racefantv.com/SPEED2%20Coming.htm

Anyway, I have no problem with the race length, WTCC races aren't much shorter than an hour and I'm sure that's where Ratel got the idea since he was apart of the LG Racing Weekend Tour that had Euro F3, WTCC and his FIA GT series.

I'm sure he didn't count on traditionalist/purist like you who would complain about the race length to be so hostile to it. He is hoping to attract fans that normally feel endurance racing is too long to sit through, obviously that is not you. He wants to grow the series beyond its traditional fan base and I don't blame him for that. For the most part endurance racing "preaches to the choir" ALMS races come in around .6 in ratings, Grand Am is .2-.4 rating. The Indy Car race in Toronto was 1.0 matching last year's rating. F1 in America is .6 the lowest its been on Fox since they started showing F1. I would argue the racing in F1 has been the best its been in awhile since Lewis Hamilton hit the scene.

NASCAR did 2.8 two weeks ago. (Life Lock 400)

So with so few eyeballs to compete for, that would give rise to trying it another way, doing it the traditional way isn't working. I'm not familiar with how popular other series in Europe are beyond F1, but from what I can tell by who's sitting in the stands, if its not F1 it drops dramatically.

One of these days somebody is going to build adjustable grandstands so it doesn't look quite so bad on wide shots.

At least Ratel is offering it not only on TV (Bloomberg in my case) but streaming it live on the internet.

Sorry but I do usually make LONG post, that's why I started a BLOG..lol

[Jag_Warrior]

I'm really enjoying it. And for whatever reason, being able to watch it on Bloomberg makes it all the more special. It's like a secret club that only a few of us know about.

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Originally Posted by dj4monie I'm sure he didn't count on traditionalist/purist like you who would complain about the race length to be so hostile to it. He is hoping to attract fans that normally feel endurance racing is too long to sit through, obviously that is not you. He wants to grow the series beyond its traditional fan base and I don't blame him for that.

I'd prefer differing race lengths.

I don't mind the odd set of 1 hr races but not for every race bar Spa.

The races have been getting shorter due to Eurosport.

I admire what Ratel is doing but its like somebody messing oval racing with a set of 100 lap/mile sprints.

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by wedge I'd prefer differing race lengths. I don't mind the odd set of 1 hr races but not for every race bar Spa. The races have been getting shorter due to Eurosport. I admire what Ratel is doing but its like somebody messing oval racing with a set of 100 lap/mile sprints.

If you heard some people, they would say NASCAR needs to split up some of its races like V8 Supercars does. Say 500 mile event, (2) 250 miles races, one on Saturday, the other on Sunday. It wouldn't shorten it to 1 hour like you said, but it would for sure shorten races from 4-6 hours they seem to run (with all the caution flags...) to something more manageable.

Because I'm a traditionalist, I don't mind the longer events, but something really needs to be done with allowing cars that have been involved in accidents throwing debris onto the track, giving them an excuse to bunch the field up. This could be fixed by limiting how far down points get scored. Even based on the Top 35, if you projected to finish below 35th, they should park you.

1 hour Sprint Races are fine, Championship Races could be 90-120min, it depends on cost. According to some information on Last Turn Clubhouse, its vastly more expensive paying for time on Free To Air at least in the US, maybe its the other way around in Europe. But paying for another 30-60 mins of air time without adverts... Maybe that's why all races are 1 hour...

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Originally Posted by dj4monie If you heard some people, they would say NASCAR needs to split up some of its races like V8 Supercars does. Say 500 mile event, (2) 250 miles races, one on Saturday, the other on Sunday. It wouldn't shorten it to 1 hour like you said, but it would for sure shorten races from 4-6 hours they seem to run (with all the caution flags...) to something more manageable. Because I'm a traditionalist, I don't mind the longer events, but something really needs to be done with allowing cars that have been involved in accidents throwing debris onto the track, giving them an excuse to bunch the field up. This could be fixed by limiting how far down points get scored. Even based on the Top 35, if you projected to finish below 35th, they should park you. 1 hour Sprint Races are fine, Championship Races could be 90-120min, it depends on cost. According to some information on Last Turn Clubhouse, its vastly more expensive paying for time on Free To Air at least in the US, maybe its the other way around in Europe. But paying for another 30-60 mins of air time without adverts... Maybe that's why all races are 1 hour...

Pocono is a prime candidate. I actually don't mind it currently being a solid 500. It's so unique compared to watching to 1.5 mile cookie cutters.