2017 SUPER GT ThreadTouring Cars 

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https://supergtworld.wordpress.com/...ystem-grid-penalties-for-driving-infractions/

Part 2 of the changes in the 2017 sporting regulations, which detail the new six-stage "Seed Rights" system and changes to the Driving Moral Hazard System which dictates driver conduct.

The new Seed Rights are grouped into three different categories:

A-Seed: Includes all GT500 teams, and the top 18 teams in GT300 based on last year's Teams' Championship results.
B-Seed: Includes 1) International teams (Toyota Team Thailand), 2) long-tenured teams that have run since 2008 (Cars Tokai Dream28, Team Mach, Tomei Sports), and 3) highest ranked remaining teams in GT300 until 42 cars have been seeded.
C-Seed: Includes 1) All other remaining tenured teams not in the A or B-Seed groups, and 2) All new teams.

New teams can acquire the higher-priority Seed Rights from an existing team that's ceasing operations, similar to the Charter system in NASCAR or the REC in Supercars.

These groups will be re-ordered after the 2017 season, based on each team's best six out of eight results.

Don't worry, I didn't really get my head around these changes at 6 AM this morning - and I knew something like this had been coming for months! :dopey:
 
Here are your first official 2017 Entry Lists:

GT500 - 15 Cars

GT300 - 30 Cars

Kenta Yama****a is officially confirmed as Takeshi Tsuchiya's replacement in the VivaC 86. Cars Tokai Dream28, BMW Team Studie, and R'Qs Motor Sports renew their existing driver lineups for 2017.

Sean Walkinshaw is the new co-driver of the ARTA BMW M6, replacing Takashi Kobayashi. Shinnosuke Yamada moves from Team Upgarage with Bandoh to Team Taisan SARD. Morio Nitta & Akihiro Tsuzuki will drive for the newly-allied INGING & Arnage Racing in what we think will be a Ferrari 488 GT3.

Panther Team Thailand will field an all-Thai driver lineup of Nattavude Charoensukhawatana and Nattapong Horthongkum.

Sadly, Lamborghini Team Direction have likely suspended operations for 2017, leaving JLOC as the only Lambo team in the field.
 
Red Bull will sponsor them in some form due to their ties with Hirakawa, but it won't be the coveted title sponsorship and full-on Red Bull livery many hoped for. Ah well, KeePer Pro Shop is still good.

Team Upgarage with Bandoh announces their 2017 driver lineup: Ninth-year Super GT veteran Yuhki Nakayama returns, joined by another rookie, 24-year-old Shintaro Kawabata, who graduates from the FIA F4 Japanese Championship and has also won races in PCCJ.
 
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Sexy as hell!
 
It's Sports Cars then. They are nothing at all like Touring Cars. They are second only to LMP1H for speed around a track on the sports/GT/Prototype stage for a start. It's an endurance style of racing for second, with driver changes in pitstops.
 
Not feeling the Zent Lexus, it just looks like someone messed up at the factory and used too little red paint in the mixture used to spray that door. :P
 
I didn't know they were already running thé LC500. Were they still running the RC-F last year?

Maybe I should follow Super GT more closely...
 
Huge, huge announcement coming in from Suzuka today by circuit president Susumu Yama****a and Stephane Ratel of the SRO.

The Suzuka 1000km will evolve into the Suzuka 10 Hour Endurance Race next year, and will switch from Super GT to the SRO Intercontinental GT Challenge as a GT3 & GT300 event involving the top teams from Super GT's GT300 class, Super Taikyu ST-X, and others from Blancpain GT, Pirelli World Challenge, and other GT3-based series.

A new Super GT event at Suzuka will be announced before the 46th - and final - running of the Suzuka 1000km as we know it now.

https://supergtworld.wordpress.com/...-sro-intercontinental-gt-challenge-from-2018/

EDIT: Ratel is saying it won't be on the 2018 Intl GT Challenge.
 
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Normally I would be sad for something like the 1000km to end, but that's an awesome step in the right direction.
 
blinky77
Huge, huge announcement coming in from Suzuka today by circuit president Susumu Yama****a and Stephane Ratel of the SRO.

The Suzuka 1000km will evolve into the Suzuka 10 Hour Endurance Race next year, and will switch from Super GT to the SRO Intercontinental GT Challenge as a GT3 & GT300 event involving the top teams from Super GT's GT300 class, Super Taikyu ST-X, and others from Blancpain GT, Pirelli World Challenge, and other GT3-based series.

A new Super GT event at Suzuka will be announced before the 46th - and final - running of the Suzuka 1000km as we know it now.

https://supergtworld.wordpress.com/...-sro-intercontinental-gt-challenge-from-2018/
Click to expand...
I heard Pirelli World Challenge. Does this mean we get ATS V-Rs (and/or the black dog Camaros) in Japan, at Suzuka, running with the Hatsune Miku team and other Itasha racers? Is anyone gonna carry this in English because I wanna watch
 
I doubt many GT300 teams will participate in this. I feel the BoP will be massively jumbled and in some team's favor.

Shame... I looked forward to the 1000km every year. I'm actually quite disappointed by this, I don't know why.
 
If Super GT loses the 1000km, that would be a real shame. The variety in race lengths is one of the many things that makes the series interesting. I hope Super GT doesn't go in a DTM direction of being all sprint races.


That said, it's good to see Japan get an international GT3 endurance event. I hope it grows into something big.
 
Is there no way to have the all GT3/GT300 event at a different time than the 1000km race? I mean it seems a bit extreme to cut the 1000km for a 10 hour race. :odd:

That being said, it's great Japan and Suzuka is getting an endurance race on the SRO schedule. Just wish it didn't mean dropping the 1000km. That part of it is rather stupid to be blunt.
 
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The Rat ain't gonna have a good time if it's not part of the Intercontinental GT Series, because there's no incentive to participate. I give it 2 years, max. It's going to be mostly 2nd tier GT300 entries like the #30 apr Prius and arnage, Tomei, and some ST-X cars, and maybe some other Asian participants, with the inevitable WRT and Manthey.
 
I can understand it. For the GT500 teams and manufacturers, it has to be difficult to be forced to work with an engine package that's shared with a formula car, and then adapt it for endurance racing for a single event a year.

I can understand the move to the 10 hour, as it could theoretically leave the door open for the 1000km to return alongside it in the future, should the opportunity arise.
 

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