2006 British GT entries

[TheNewBob]

There seems to be a little scepticism regarding the '06 BGT series - the switch to Avon tyres and the rising up of FIA GT, LMES and Britcar could easily reduce entries. The SRO have appointed Motion Works UK regarding help for promotion of the championhips, let's hope it has a positive impact. The return to the MSV circuits certainly won't do the series any harm.

But what do entry lists look like so far? Are Scuderia Ecosse likely to defend their title with a pair of new F430's? Will LNT enter with their Panoz (if they can keep the noise down!)? Will we still see regulars like Eurotech and Damax? With the new FIA GT3 cars, will we still see older GT3 machines such as the Marcos Mantis and Morgan Aero 8?

We have a couple of months or so until the season kicks off, I was hoping we could get some news on who's likely to be entering this year...?

[Graham Goodwin]

I can tell you that the Morgan and Marcos are coming back for 2006, A pair of GT3 Tech9 Porsches are more or less confirmed too - I believe we will have at least two Moslers, an LNT Panoz and some news to come on Ferrari (s).

DAMAX is a no

[TheNewBob]

Nice to see Morgan and Marcos - in a British national series, it's only fitting to have some very British names Plus both Team Tiger and Aero Racing did some very good things with their cars last year.

Damax really not going to be there? Shame, was interested by their Ascari...

Additions should be for Tracspeed too - BGT website has them down for GT3 Porsche - not sure how many, though - seems like just the one.

[jase]

Originally Posted by TheNewBob

...The SRO have appointed Motion Works UK regarding help for promotion of the championhips, let's hope it has a positive impact.....

Well, it can't be any worse, can it?

[MikeHoyer]

It might be two, they were testing two the other week.

[TheNewBob]

OK, I been doing a little bit of internet research:

- Eclipse have their 2006 BGT intentions written on their front page of their website, seems they'll be regularly involved.
- Hawthorns Motorsport have, according to their site, ditched their ZM Coupe in favour of a Porsche GT3 Cup car, they'll do a handful of BGT races but seem to have their sights on Britcar.
- Xero competition say they'll be doing "selected GT races throughout Europe" - anyone think they might consider BGT once more? The series is listed in their drives available page of their site...

With other teams having no website link available, or their sites haven't been updated, it's hard to find any more information at the minute.

One extra team is Barwell, who have 2 DBRS9's ready to enter selected races.

[JAG]

GT2 was bad enough, if fields are 60%+ GT3's I'll have little interest.

When you look at Belcar, French GT and Itlaian GT it's very depressing,

Put together an LMP2/3 and GT2/3 joint championship with 30+ entries and 2 hour races, that will be interesting.

[kipper]

Originally Posted by TheNewBob

But what do entry lists look like so far? Are Scuderia Ecosse likely to defend their title with a pair of new F430's? Will LNT enter with their Panoz (if they can keep the noise down!)? Will we still see regulars like Eurotech and Damax? With the new FIA GT3 cars, will we still see older GT3 machines such as the Marcos Mantis and Morgan Aero 8?

I think that Scuderia Ecosse's plans will focus more on the international scene, also I seem to remember reading that Keith Ahlers will return with his Morgan. Autosport reported, a couple of weeks ago, that LNT would enter a single Panoz, with one of the drivers being Tom Kimber-Smith.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by Graham Goodwin

I can tell you that the Morgan and Marcos are coming back for 2006, A pair of GT3 Tech9 Porsches are more or less confirmed too - I believe we will have at least two Moslers, an LNT Panoz and some news to come on Ferrari (s).

DAMAX is a no

Still the old Marcos Mantis or is there a new Marcos TSO GT2 coming?

[TheNewBob]

JAG - if I remember correctly, didn't Stephane Ratel say in '04 and '05 that if there were a high enough number of entries then BGT could still have a GT1 class? It's not really all of the fault of the championship, if the teams running higher machinery seem to have their eye on Europe and the World.

Still, I will agree, having GT2 as a top class is a little depressive, particularly having seen the series at it's best in the past.

However, why should they add LMP's? It's called a GT championship for that reason - they run GT cars! So adding LMP's would be completely missing the point! (we're all aware of your dislike of GT racing, JAG, and your predictions of total doom and gloom, but please can we NOT, again, go down the road of your thoughts of it all going down the pan - that is, yet again, completely missing the point of this thread...)

[JAG]

I seriously haven't seen any news on British GT entries yet.

All the major teams seem to be going the international route.

Other GT series seem to be able to retain teams, even if they graduate, ala PSI, GLPK.

Maybe the reason for Britcars succes is that you can run unhomologated specials just as we see in Belcar.

BTW, it may be called the British 'GT' Championship but we've seen everything from VW Golfs to 911 GT1's. I can't see any reason why we couldn't have a British Sportscar Championship, invite P2's such as old Pilbeams, Licchinis, C65's, P3 Radicals, Jades and your regular GT2/3 entrants.

The series needs to attract Britcar and club racing entrants. If such a proactive team as XERO are not entering fulltime you have to ask why.

[TheNewBob]

I'd thought BGT had some irregular cars anyway - the likes of Ultima and the Monaro not being homologated for use in the GT2 class internationally (but would stick to G2 instead), and the BinTec in GT3, along with some stranger entrants like the V6 Clio and, as you mentioned, the VW Golf.

I think BGT is currently in a difficult patch, they need to do some things to start raking in the decent entries again - but is that possibly material for a different thread? It'll take some time, a couple of years at least, and my aim with this was to try and focus on who we'll get in 2006 only...

I also intended this to be a positive thread, as much as I'd love to see some much greater cars in the series, and as much as I miss the good old days, can we show a little enthusiasm for what we do have? We at least have something that teams can work up from, there is no greater national GT3 class, and some half-decent racing at least took place in 2005.

Yes there might be problems and issues, but simply being negative about it all will never solve anything...

Barwell are entering Aston Martin DBRS9's - where else other than FIA Euro GT3 is this happening? Nowhere, so we do have something relatively unique, at least...

[tux]

i read a report on crash.net that neil cunningham said he would be back with jonathan france and embassy racing in there porsche in the british gt next season

[renkadima]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Still the old Marcos Mantis or is there a new Marcos TSO GT2 coming?

Less of the 'old' - it was mixing it nicely in the Dutch Supercar Challenge races at Silverstone, before being scandalously penalised!

As for the BGT overall, it looks as though the doomsday scenario many of us feared at the tail-end of last year may well have been averted. I think the return to MSV circuits has done a lot to persuade teams to keep the faith. Yes, there will be a lot of Porsches and Ferraris (don't forget the likes of Motorbase, RPM, JMH, UCB), but they produced some superb racing last year; and we will also see how the Trident Iceni gets on with its new engine.

Fingers crossed for a good year.

[Happy Snapper]

Originally Posted by TheNewBob

There seems to be a little scepticism regarding the '06 BGT series - the switch to Avon tyres and the rising up of FIA GT, LMES and Britcar could easily reduce entries. The SRO have appointed Motion Works UK regarding help for promotion of the championhips, let's hope it has a positive impact. The return to the MSV circuits certainly won't do the series any harm.

But what do entry lists look like so far? Are Scuderia Ecosse likely to defend their title with a pair of new F430's? Will LNT enter with their Panoz (if they can keep the noise down!)? Will we still see regulars like Eurotech and Damax? With the new FIA GT3 cars, will we still see older GT3 machines such as the Marcos Mantis and Morgan Aero 8?

We have a couple of months or so until the season kicks off, I was hoping we could get some news on who's likely to be entering this year...?

I've worked with Motion Works previously and know some of the guys well, I managed to catch Roger Etchell at Autosport I think they will work hard to promote the events.

Does anybody know yet who the organising club will be?

[Happy Snapper]

Originally Posted by kipper

I think that Scuderia Ecosse's plans will focus more on the international scene, also I seem to remember reading that Keith Ahlers will return with his Morgan. Autosport reported, a couple of weeks ago, that LNT would enter a single Panoz, with one of the drivers being Tom Kimber-Smith.

Keith will be back for I understand "one more year" he has plenty of other racing interests to keep him busy..

[jase]

Believe an announcement will be made soon regarding the organising club.

With regard to Roger Etcell and co promoting the series, should be good, he did good work with Powertour.

[TheNewBob]

Despite new promoters then it seems Embassy Racing won't be around - in the middle of selling their Porsche and now discovering their Ascari won't be eligable for the championship due to the construction of it's bodywork...

[ccharlie6]

i was just thinking noise was the biggest bain of LNT's 05 championship, now they are entering a panoz with an even louder V8 and side pipes like the TVR again! are they going to have the same problem again?

[fausto]

Originally Posted by TheNewBob

Despite new promoters then it seems Embassy Racing won't be around - in the middle of selling their Porsche and now discovering their Ascari won't be eligable for the championship due to the construction of it's bodywork...

it's not a matter of bodywork, it's the carbonfibre chassis....at least the rule will keep the Maserati MC12 away from the championship

[kipper]

Apparently the Cadena Mosler has been sold to Pirelli Marenello driver, Kevin Riley; who will drive with Ian Flux, with Cadena continuing to run the car, which means that LNT will have some competition in the GT2 class.

[pink69]

shame about embassy!

[TheNewBob]

Originally Posted by fausto

it's not a matter of bodywork, it's the carbonfibre chassis....at least the rule will keep the Maserati MC12 away from the championship

Your quite right, sorry, I got my information wrong! Still, shame to see the GT2 numbers so small...

[RacingRod]

Originally Posted by Theonebob

OK, I been doing a little bit of internet research:


- Hawthorns Motorsport have, according to their site, ditched their ZM Coupe in favour of a Porsche GT3 Cup car, they'll do a handful of BGT races but seem to have their sights on Britcar.

Ah! Slight change of plans, as well as a request to admin for a change of user name as the Z3M tag no longer applies

We are planning to race in BGT this season, once we know the full regulations and the exact race dates and venues, it's slightly tricky changing between Britcar and BGT as they use different tyre suppliers, not impossible, but a hassle. We would also need two different preparation teams as our existing GT prep team, (Motorbase Performance) can't do Britcar and our old Britcar prep team (Moore Racing) can't do GT, both as a result of their commitments to their own and other series. It was a hard decision, but a sense of unfinished business with BGT plus a chunk of sponsorship if we went the GT route kind of made our minds up

I really hope BGT have sorted out some of the issues that upset competitors last season and we can get a definite calendar, for at the moment it's still provisional

[Happy Snapper]

It’s my understanding the race calendar and circuits is sorted, I also believe that there has been no announcement on whom the organising club may be.