UKGTR Season 8 - structure and format

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

With the second Race '07 season failing to attract significant numbers, and no sign of the release of GTR Evolution, we will return to a quadruple championship format in UKGTR. I'm therefore proposing the following format, with 8 races in each series.

Weeks 1, 3, 5, etc.

First Tuesday: GT1 Sprint. (If numbers are poor we will try a mixed GT1/GT2 Sprint.) 40 minutes races.

First Sunday: Upper Endurance, GT1 and GT2, at the same track as the GT1 Sprint race. Races 3 and 6 will be nominated as "Super Endurance" events and run over 130 minutes; the others will run over 80 minutes as at present.

By running the "odd week" events at the same track I hope that more people will turn up to use the race as a warmup for the Endurance event.

Weeks 2, 4, 6 etc.

Second Tuesday: GTC Sprint. This will be the only GTC event and I hope it will therefore attract more drivers, even without the Vertigo (and 350Z). Race length will be increased from Season 7 to 50 minutes.

Second Sunday: GT3 Endurance. With the expanded choice of cars I hope this will also be well attended. Races will be 80 minutes each and we will have one Super Endurance race of 130 minutes in the first half of the season; if that proves popular we will run a second one towards the end of the season.

I'm delaying the first GT3 Endurance until the last of the four series to give us a bit of a break from GT3 after all the test races.

The GTC and GT3 series will use some different tracks to the GT1/GT2 series and to each other; where there is an overlap I will try to arrange for those tracks to crop up over the length of the season rather than together to increase to variety a little.

Registration

There will be no registration for any series. If demand outstrips supply towards the end of the season we'll introduce something to ensure that regulars get priority.

Time of Day and Weather

GT1 Sprints will be dry and run in daylight.

GTC Sprints will use generated weather but will have their changeability set to 0 so that the weather is fixed through all sessions.

GT1/GT2 Endurance and GT3 Endurance will use generated weather as at present. Most races will run during the day, but there will be some dawn, dusk and night races where the track permits this to happen without major loss of visibility.

Mid-season

Expect a mid-season update to the skin pack - it's likely that some small tweaks will be needed to the GT3 class at least.

GTR2 Manager and voluntary handicap ballast

If we get full server at the skins 2.8 test race next Sunday and don't see any of the disco problems we saw last season, we will probably have to run without GTR2 Manager. If we get a full server and still get problems, we will know that there is a capacity issue and GTR2 Manager will be available for the first race of the season. If turnout isn't sufficient to assess the situation, we will start the season without GTR2 Manager, with the aim of reintroducing it after the first round of each championship should running without it not improve the stability situation.

[psuedo]

That sounds excellent to me. 

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

First post updated with weather and time of day details. I knew I'd forgotten something!

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Bah, forgot something else - GTC Sprint to be 50 minutes instead of 40.

[Mark J]

whilst acknowledging and thanking you for all your hard work Dave, i do have to ask why is G3 endurance taking the place of the very popular GTC endurance?
Do that many people really want to run an endurance series using the slowest cars available in GTR2? and even more so run a 130min super endurance in a G3 car? I dont for one and i have always supported the endurance series.  

And then for sprints we get varied 'fixed' weather for GT1 but not GTC   If we are trying to encourage more numbers and good racing in GT1, shouldnt that be the other way around? I can see some being put off completely trying to wrestle a GT1 around a wet track. They are a handful enough in the dry. IMO the GTC sprints would benefit more from a weather variable and add to the challenge of the series.

At the end of the day, your the boss, but i dont agree with all of those choices.

[DynoDaz]

Damn you Gizmo for making me say this, but I agree with MJ. 

If you want to attract more people to the GT1 races, adding weather is probably not going to help.

However, the easier to handle GTC series needs mixed weather to add some spice....

P.S.  Any chance of increasing the GTC sprint to 60mins?  It would be a good compromise for those of us that were looking forward to another season of GTC enduros...

[Paul968]

While I understand why G3 endurance is the way it is, I'm not sure why you are drpping GTC in favour of GT2? They are pretty close to drive but GT2 has far less car choice, especially when you consider that neither 911 turbot or the Seat are very popular.

[Simon Gymer]

Is this a discussion about what we should do for Season 8 or just a statement of intention? Cause I sort of remember a good number of threads on the make-up of Season 8 in this board. Let's not go over the same discussions again.

[Paul968]

Fair enough, but this wasn't one of those things discussed as I remember it.

[Simon Gymer]

Fair enough, but this wasn't one of those things discussed as I remember it.

Yeah, but at some point things have to "just get decided" and move on, cause no one ever agrees 100% with each other and we could discuss things for ages or get racing (I know which is more fun), so whoever is in charge (Gizmo) should just decide and that be the end of it cause it saves a lot of heated exchanges and tbh when we all get on track none of it matters anyway.

[Mark J]

Im more than happy to race GT2, i can re-live my classic Ferrari v Porsche battles on track   I just dont get why the very popular GTC enduro was dropped for the technically lowest and slowest class  
But i will add i am not that bothered, it will give me a sunday night off every other week   Bit annoying to waste a whole seasons worth of GTC setups mind.

[ginsters sponsored]

On the whole that sounds great 

However, I would argue that GT1 sprint races should be dry. I feel that many stayed away from GT1 cause they found it tricky and even the most experienced GT1 pilots struggle in the wet (gawd knows how the MC12 goes in it). Whereas the GTC cars are far easier and more interesting to drive in changeable weather so I would switch them.

Anyways, hope the GT1 gets the support it deserves. Bagsy the MC12

[Paul968]

Yeah, but at some point things have to "just get decided" and move on, cause no one ever agrees 100% with each other and we could discuss things for ages or get racing (I know which is more fun), so whoever is in charge (Gizmo) should just decide and that be the end of it cause it saves a lot of heated exchanges and tbh when we all get on track none of it matters anyway.

I agree that someone has to make a decision when there is debate about the right thing to do. I don't agree though that dropping what was probably the most popular class in endurance without any consultation is a good idea.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Is this a discussion about what we should do for Season 8 or just a statement of intention?

It's a statement of intent - I'm not opposed to making tweaks based on feedback but in terms of classes and series I've reached the conclusion that this structure is the most likely to get good grid sizes.

However, I would argue that GT1 sprint races should be dry. I feel that many stayed away from GT1 cause they found it tricky and even the most experienced GT1 pilots struggle in the wet (gawd knows how the MC12 goes in it). Whereas the GTC cars are far easier and more interesting to drive in changeable weather so I would switch them.

That's the sort of change I'm willing to make if it has popular support. Especially with the longer GTC races.

I just dont get why the very popular GTC enduro was dropped for the technically lowest and slowest class  

Because the Sprint grid suffered the most last season and I'm hoping that by making it the only GTC series, the grid will swell again. I'm lengthening the GTC races a bit to compensate.

P.S.  Any chance of increasing the GTC sprint to 60mins?  It would be a good compromise for those of us that were looking forward to another season of GTC enduros...

Again, this is the sort of tweak I'm willing to entertaining if it has popular support. I'd happily do 4 80 minutes races a week.

[Simon Gymer]

That's the sort of change I'm willing to make if it has popular support.

I would be happy with dry GT1 Sprints, as I feel sprint races are for all-out action without need for strategy.

Again, this is the sort of tweak I'm willing to entertaining if it has popular support. I'd happily do 4 80 minutes races a week.

I'm totally against making sprints longer than 40 minutes because longer races introduce strategy and I think that goes against the point of a sprint. If you want to make it another Endurance series, that's a different matter, but do it properly either way. 50 or 60 minute races are inbetween a good race length.