By Sam Tickell
More of these could be in Australia soon!
Although the Australian GT Championship has had a break from the on track action over the past couple of weeks, that doesn't mean things have stopped for the series.
With the GT3 rules governing the series, there is always talk with concern and excitement over the car count for the series. This naturally throws up a lot of the 'garbage' rumours but here are some of the more plausible contenders:
--- The team that ran Bryce Washington , the 2005 Champion and 2007 runner up could be returning to the series. Despite selling their Lamborghini to Mark Eddy, they have another one coming into the country. This car will not be ready for the next round at Oran Park but should be ready for the end of season rounds including the Australian Tourist Trophy. There are no words as yet on the driver front but it is very unlikely that Washington will drive as he is busy with Carrera Cup duties.
--- Mark Coffey Racing could be entering another Ferrari 430 GT3 car to run alongside the Championship winning Coopers Ferrari. It is likely that this would be the car that Irishman, Hector Lester raced in Australia early this year. It could be assumed that the car will be driven by Tim Leahey when Allan Simonsen is not available - with the two defending their Australian Tourist Trophy title. John Bowe would continue on in the other car.
--- Ted Huglin who currently runs the CCC Ferrari 360 GT also has a GT3 spec Lamborghini on order. This car is expected to arrive before the end of the year but will miss Oran Park. It is expected that this car will be shared by Huglin and Carrera Cup front runner - Craig Baird.
--- There are also rumours of another Aston Martin DBRS9 joining the field later this year. Currently details are sketchy about this entry. Naturally many other non-GT3 spec cars could enter the field with rumours of another Lotus Elise entering the series.
If all these entries do appear, that will take the number of GT3 spec cars to nine by the end of the year. While that is good news, it isn't all good for the GT Championship.
It still appears that there is no resolution on the Porsche 997 issue that we reported last year (see this story) with no Porsche GT3 cars destined for Australia or this Championship. Additionally, the grid size could be small for the coming rounds as a new all Porsche championship (the Porsche Drivers Challenge) destined to take many of the older Porsche 996 Cup Cars from the grid.
So while there could be a lot of good news on the horizon for the Australian GT Championship, it could be tempered by grid sizes and other issues presented by new catagories in Australian GT racing. Certainly things will come clearer after the next round.
A rosy picture for the future, or could scenes like this disappear for internationally recognised GT competition in Australia?
The FMSC View
First of all, someone should buy this car and bring it to Australia.
Secondly - how many national GT series does the place of Australia need? Australia now has the Australian GT Championship, Intermarque, Carrera Cup, Pirelli GT and the Porsche Drivers Challenge (with ProtoSports offering the the Prototype (LMP3-esque) alternative). It's bad enough that the finite level of resources for this sport are being stretched so thin, but surely the fact that there are two Porsche only competitions suggests that the situation needs a rethink.
With the Pirelli GT and the Porsche Drivers Challenge being new catagories and with conversations and message board posts, there does seem to be a movement to at case where everyone wants to win, no matter what they spend.
We say - don't build another series, use your business strength to build up the category and bring money into it and buy a better car or race in a lower series (or a state category) or deal with the fact that some people have spent more money than you and be thankful for the fact that you can afford to race at all.
GT3 is the path that Australian GT racing has gone down and will have to make it work or another situation like Procar will happen again and Australia will be doomed to be a forgotten wasteland for GT competition.
It wasn't all that long ago that Australia had international events on its shores with the Race of 1000 Years and rounds of the World Sportscar Championship. Today, Australian drivers are racing in the worlds best sportscar championships with drivers in the ALMS, Le Mans Series, FIA GT and IMSA Lites.
GT Racing must work in Australia if Australian drivers will continue to have serious overseas racing opportunities. It maybe the case that people will have to relent and work with others to make that happen.
But in the mean time, at least it appears that the GT Championship will gain some new competitors in the not-to-distant future, which could restart the positive momentum that was building up in 2007.
Editor's note:
I hadn't intended this article to turn into what it did, but that's what happened. We are seeking further comment from the GT Championship management about a range of issues in this article and will update you on any further developments. If you would like to contact me about anything you see in here, please do so at feedmesportscars@yahoo.co.uk
Thanks