MOTORSPORT: GTs do big U-turn on Supercars

Calendar announcements usually come in the latter stages of a year rather than the first month, but the Australian GT category has been forced into an embarrassing revamp of its sprint series for this year.

It will mean more GT racing at Supercar rounds, a combination that the GT organisers had been trying to end.

GT category owner Tony Quinn had said last October that Supercars “don’t have the product that appeals to anyone anymore” and were “just trying to stop the rot”, while GTs were “the place to be”.

Now some rapprochement has had to be found to appease GT competitors who feared an onset of attention deficit syndrome.

The revised calendar will be better for Australian motor racing fans generally, but not for those in Tasmania – who have now lost the new round they were to have had.

The round scheduled for Symmons Plains near Launceston on the first weekend of September as well as the sprint rounds at Victoria’s Phillip Island and New Zealand’s Highlands Park have been scrubbed.

In place of these will be rounds with the Supercars at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway in early May, Queensland’s Townsville in July and Melbourne’s Sandown in mid-September.

When the GT calendars – for the sprint and endurance championships as well as the GT Trophy – were announced little more than two months ago they had a twilight sprint round at Ipswich’s Queensland Raceway in early August, but that quickly evaporated from the schedule.

And there had been glee in announcing the addition of Tasmania to the calendar. “We think our calendar provides a great mix for competitors and fans, and we’re excited to be heading to Tasmania for the first time,” GT category manager Ken Collier said in mid-November.

Quinn declared the Tasmanian round was going to be “pretty special”, saying there was a history at Symmons Plains for this type of racing from the Nations Cup days as “one of the best events we did”.

“It [the new GT round that had been scheduled] will be a financially good event for us to do,” Quinn said.
Now though, little more than two months later, Tasssie’s off the GT map.

Collier also had claimed that GTs were “no longer a support category”, but now they suddenly are again.

The only GT sprint rounds not affected in the revamp are the first two in March – at Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 and Melbourne’s grand prix at Albert Park. These were to have been the only two events this year at which Supercars and GTs were on the same billing.

There is a change to the GT Endurance Championship calendar too, although it remains at the same circuit.

Instead of being part of the Shannons Nationals at Sydney Motorsport Park in early July that second round of the endurance championship becomes part of the Supercars round there several weeks later in mid-August.

Quinn had wanted to separate his events from Supercars, having declared that last year’s GT enduro at Sydney Motorsport Park as part of the Supercars round “a waste of time”.

But competitor pressure for greater exposure, especially as part of Supercars’ Fox TV arrangements, brought about the change.

Meanwhile, the driver line-ups for the Bathurst 12-Hour in a fortnight, primarily a GT event now but run by Supercars as a partner with the Bathurst council rather than Quinn’s GT organisation, is almost complete. More on that in coming days.

Revised 2017 Australian GT Championship calendar:
Round 1 – March 2-5, Clipsal 500, Adelaide
Round 2 – March 23-26, Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne
Round 3 – May 5-7, Perth Supercars Super Sprint, Barbagallo Raceway
Round 4 – July 7-9, Townsville 400 Supercars round, Townsville
Round 5 – September 15-17, Sandown 500 Supercars event, Melbourne

Revised 2017 GT Endurance Championship calendar:
Round 1 – May 26-28, Phillip Island 500
Round 2 – August 18-20, Sydney 501, Sydney Motorsport Park
Round 3 – October 27-29, Hampton Downs 500, New Zealand
Round 4 – November 10-12, Highlands 501, New Zealand

2017 Australian GT Trophy Series calendar:
Round 1 – April 8-9, Sandown Raceway, Melbourne
Round 2 – June 10-11, Winton Motor Raceway, Victoria
Round 3 – August 5-6, Queensland Raceway, Ipswich
Round 4 – September 9-10, Phillip Island, Victoria
Round 5 – November 18-19, Wakefield Park, NSW

Off-Road Championship loses two of its rounds
The Australian Off-Road Championship also has had a big change, with two rounds – at Sunraysia in Victoria and Waikerie in South Australia – dropping off the calendar for this year.

Confederation of Australian Motor Sport chief executive Eugene Arocca said it was unfortunate the two events had decided not to participate in the championship but that “encouraging discussions” had taken place regarding new events for the series.

“We understand that for competitors and fans of the national off-road championship, this news [of the loss of two events] will come as a disappointment,” Arocca said.

“We’ve been working with the organisers to avert this situation, but in the end it is their decision and we respect that.

“We’ve had encouraging discussions with many other interested organisers for potential 2017 and 2018 events.”

The Finke Desert Race remains the crown jewel of the championship in June.

Spectator killed by Kiwi's crashing Hyundai in 'Monte'
The new-era World Rally Championship is off to a disastrous start, with a spectator killed when New Zealand driver Hayden Paddon crashed his factory Hyundai i20 on the opening stage of the Monte Carlo Rally.

The tragedy happened when the coupe came on a patch of black ice on the entry to a left-hand turn, hit a bank rear-first, rolled and blocked the stage -- which was then cancelled.

Paddon's Belgian teammate, Thierry Neuville, was the rally leader by several seconds after the second stage, ahead of Sebastien Ogier, the Frenchman who has been world champion the past four years for Volkswagen and is having his first event in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta after VW's withdrawal from the sport.

Meanwhile, registration fees for this year's Australian Rally Championship have been halved – to $1500.

“This marks the first of many changes on the horizon for the championship [starting with the revived Victorian round, the Eureka Rally, at Ballarat on March 17] with it now coming under the CAMS banner,” CAMS general manager of motorsport Michael Smith said.

“More news regarding the championship will be announced shortly.”