With the recent announcement that the British F1 GP is moving to Donington, this would effect the sportscar world whose main races take place on the Silverstone circuit.
We will keep this brief as the fallout from the announcement means that a lot is still up in the air.
But as we see it, if we were to bet (* if by some bizarre happening, you can bet on this, don't follow our advise - I don't bet) we would see the MotoGP round moving to Silverstone and the 1000km of Silverstone (nee Donington nee-nee Silverstone) for the Le Mans Series and the Tourist Trophy events will stay at Silverstone.
If the track does gain the MotoGP, then you can expect certain upgrades to make it MotoGP spec - nothing really major there.
But what this move could do is for the BRDC (British Racing Drivers Club, owner of Silverstone) to pump more promotion dollars into the sportscar arena as more funds will be freed - as the F1 always ran a loss and the track would want to keep its name in the spot light.
If the MotoGP comes, sportscars could expect less of a cash injection from the tracks promotion if compared to say, Silverstone has no 'world' championship visiting it.
There also is the other question - could the FIA GT and LMS rounds move to a different track - say move with F1 to Donington, or one of the other myriad of tracks.
Well it is unlikely to move to just another track as for most, the facilities and track are not suitable - space is always a concern as the pit complex would have to fit 50-odd cars to refuel etc. Donington even had trouble with this in 2006 when they hosed the LMS.
But we very-well may see a major sportscar race returning to Donington. With new facilities, troubles of the past could be cemented in the past but we will have to wait and see.
The FMSC View
This move of the F1, could be a good thing for sportscars. I hope they stay at Silverstone (although Donington is a good track to watch cars at, if you complain about it, move somewhere else for a while to experience other tracks, trust me it's not that bad...) and Silverstone goes with the mentality of "We don't need F1, we have sportscars" and makes it that a true success.
Am I dreaming?
Time will tell...
Sam Tickell