Australian GT Championship

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Cap'n Jack

Cap'n Jack

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GoldMineGutted
Well, usually I wouldn't really be interested in the AGTC, but I was reading about the support races for next years Clipsal 500 and noticed that the AGTC would be racing over the course of the weekend. So I went to the official website to read up on it, but instead I found some more interesting news.

FIA GT3 - New Future Direction for the Australian GT Championship
For immediate release: 26-9-2006
Australian GT Championship media release​

From the inception of the category at the original meeting held at Sandown Raceway in 2004 with all the interested competitors, it was agreed that for GT Sportscars to move forward a stable set of International rules was required, with the British GT3 rules as a starting point.
Since this meeting the FIA GT Championship/Stephan Ratel Organisation (SRO) has formulated a new international category – the FIA GT3 Championship
As final technical, sporting and homologation regulations have not been published the Australian GT Sportscar Group P/L are currently working with CAMS on a 3 year phase in program which will see the Australian GT Championship move to full FIA GT3 compliance hopefully by 2009
Given this time frame all NON-FIA GT3 compliant cars will be phased out after the next 2 seasons and any new cars to the series will be CAMS approved FIA GT3 complaint cars
This will not only provide stable and consistent rules and regulations but will open up an opportunity to purchase a wider variety of cars at affordable prices from Europe. It will also provide opportunities to travel overseas and compete with cars under the same rules and regulations competitors compete under in Australia
Cars currently eligible are below. For more information on the FIA GT3 Championship log onto www.fiagt3.com

FIA GT3 CHAMPIONSHIP – ELIGIBLE CARS
- Corvette Z06
- Aston Martin DBRS9
- Lotus Exige
- Porsche 997
- Ferrari 430
- Lamborghini Gallardo
- Dodge Viper Coupe
- Maserati GranSport Light
Click to expand...

To me, this is very interesting. It seems that the championship is finally going somewhere.
Hopefully the other Aussies will enjoy this news as much as I have. :)
 
Nice, thats great news, may have to go to the Clipsal 500 then. :sly:
 
It's great news for the GT cars. Hopefully they can get their popularity among fans and competitors back to where it was with PROCAR in the late 90's and even eclipse that.
Some more news is that with V8 Supercars no longer supporting at the AGP the AGTC may be there with up to 25 European GT3 cars being invited. Hopefully they find buyers for those cars here and don't take them back to Europe.
 
Thanks for that news! I really hope GT racing makes a comeback.
Hopefully with these new sets of rules for 2009 they'll start doing real endurances too. 1 hour races are nothing, really.
 
Though endurance races are the heart of GT3 racing, I doubt races will get beyond one hour. As I understand it, most GT3 events in Europe consist of two one hour races with a mandatory driver change. I don't really have an opinion on that, but I'd like to hear everyone elses.

m.piedgros
 
I have seen some of the GT3 racing from Europe on FOX and I think a couple of one hour races would be ideal for the AGTC, not sure about the driver changes though.
The AGTC will also be racing at the Sydney round of the A1GP on the first weekend in February and at the Bathurst International Motorsport Festival at Easter. The GT cars were popular at last years A1GP round in Sydney and at this years BIMF although they only raced on the Saturday. I suspect we will have the same situation next year as there will be a 12 hour race for production cars on the sunday.
The AGTC is also planning a long distance race at Sandown near the end of next season. A few years ago when V8 Supercars took their 500km race from Sandown to Queensland Raceway the GT cars had a 500km race at Sandown. Could we see the return of the 500km race for GT cars at Sandown?
 
What are the current AGTC regs like compared to GT3? Tire rules, engine capacity rules, forced induction rules, how close to stock are they?
 
All the technical regulations can be found on the website. The impending change to GT3 regs will be the biggest change for Aus GT since 2000 when GT1 type spoilers and diffusers were allowed along with bigger brakes and other upgrades.
http://www.gtchampionship.com.au/
 
Interesting looking stuff. Especially the eligible cars list. I guess it is a mix of old eligible cars as well as the GT3 legal cars. Thanks for the link.
 
The European GT3 cars aren't coming to the AGP now but the idea has been raised and Stephen Ratel has announced his interest in having a race in Australia a few times now so fingers crossed for the future.
 

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