CHANGES PLANNED AMIDST AUSTRALIAN GT DISCONTENT

Changes planned amidst Australian GT discontent – Photo: InSyde Media

Round 3 of the Australian GT Championship at The Bend had one of the smallest fields in the category’s history, with growing pressure on the GT management to increase entry numbers and address competitor unrest.

By BRUCE WILLIAMS and HEATH McALPINE

A meeting between Australian GT powerbrokers, which resulted in competitors threatening to withdraw from the event as concerns were raised about falling entries and growing disillusion with the current category management regime.

At Phillip Island there was a meeting between key stakeholders and category management discussing the key changes for the category in 2020, which includes a return to combined sprint and endurance events and cost-cutting measures that plan to alleviate the skyrocketing running costs of GT3 racing.

“I understand why competitors are unhappy with this year, it’s not perfect and we’re doing the best job that we can for this year,” category manager David Vervaart told Auto Action. “But also, we’re spending a lot of time making sure that next year is bigger and better, and suits our customers as best of possible.”

“We’re talking about next year everybody being on the same pits stop time, making it long and having the same two guys do the fuel then change the tyres. We’re also looking at combining sprint races at endurance rounds encompassing GT Trophy and GT4.”

The most significant change is to the driver rankings system, which has come under much conjecture from both teams and fans alike. After the meeting at Phillip Island it has been decided to conform to the current FIA driver rankings that are used by the majority of GT3 series globally and crucially by the SRO, the worldwide manager and creator of GT3.

“We’re going to the FIA driver rating,” Vervaart informed. “This includes for Pro-Am Bronze and anything, for GT4 it will be Pro-Am Bronze and Silver, then there will be an Am Cup for either two Bronzes or one Bronze on their own for sprint events.”

Vervaart acknowledged the advent of new categories including TCR and Rod Salmon’s AASA-aligned GT-1 had dented entries, while the introduction of the new Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Car has also had an impact notably in the form of former competitors Liam Talbot and Roger Lago making the switch in recent seasons.

“I think GT-1 has had an effect, the price of racing in that category is cheaper than running with us,” Vervaart explained. “I think we offer a better package than GT-1, we certainly have better circuits. If you were here two or three weeks ago when GT-1 there were 11 GT3 cars and others, but mainly GT Trophy models.

“We need to look at that for next year and we’re about to do a market research program where we get feedback from not just from our existing competitors, but from past and possible future competitors to see where the price is at.”

The calendar has also come under scrutiny, in particular the round on the Gold Coast has been unpopular with teams, though an alternative was provided, it was voted against by the majority of competitors.

Another issue that has stymied entries has been the inability to gain insurance making arrive and drive packages difficult, but Vervaart told Auto Action that this has been remedied through insurance company Motorsport Insurance Group.

The key impact on dropping numbers, however are the associated costs of purchasing and maintaining a GT3 car, which have blown out incredibly during recent times, despite entry fees making up a tenth of the figure for a race weekend.

“[The] cost of entry now is cheaper than what it was a couple of years ago, I think entry for this weekend for a GT3 car was $8000 and for other GT Trophy entrants it was only $4000, and for that you’re getting livestream, post-produced television package and all the rest,” Vervaart continued.

“That cost of entry is only a small part of the cost of participation, you have to ask yourself has GT3 peaked? Let’s talk about the cost of the cars, the cheapest one is probably the Lamborghini [Huracan GT3] at $750,000, the most is probably the Ferrari at in excess of $1 million. The cost to operate them is high, talking to teams this weekend it’s somewhere between $50,000-$80,000 a round.”

Vervaart confirmed that approximately the same number of teams had committed to the next round at Sandown, including the debut of Tony Quinn’s highly anticipated new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of which he takes delivery at Spa this weekend. He also implored teams to take up any issue each may have with him so both can work together to improve the competitor numbers.

“Come to me to talk about the issues, I’m always willing to listen,” he concluded.

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