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NEWS
V8 looks to buy GT Championship
Purchase of Australia's other premier race category not about 12 Hour insiders insistV8 Supercars is set to purchase the main feeder category for the Bathurst 12 Hour, the Australian GT Championship.
The shock development is unrelated to the growth in profile of the February endurance race, insist V8 Supercar insiders. Instead it comes on the back of the main category's move to pay television and the need to secure more racetrack programming in addition to the V8's races, practice and qualifying.
The Australian GT Championship is currently owned by motorsport entrepreneur and pet food magnate, Tony Quinn. Quinn runs cars in both championship but is a regular racer in the GT series.
V8 series insiders told motoring.com.au the negotiations are ongoing. It's understood V8 Supercars would like to have the deal finalised before the start of the 2015 season.
The talks are taking place in an environment where V8 Supercars and the GT community have been portrayed at loggerheads after the former scheduled a pre-season practice meeting against the growing endurance race.
Regulations framed for the practice meeting at Eastern Creek require lead drivers to attend all sessions, effectively ruling them out of racing at the 12 Hour. Just last week Nissan confirmed its lead V8 Supercars driver Rick Kelly would sit out the 12 Hour despite the brand's factory Nismo team had confirmed its entry at the 12 Hour.
V8 Supercars boss James Warburton would not comment on the purchase of the series.
He told motoring.com.au: "I won't respond to your question directly."
But then added: "But I will confirm that we want to take better control of our support categories, whether that be via ownership or working with them and CAMS to improve the show."
A one-make series involving Toyota 86s is also expected to join the V8 calendar in 2016. The Touring Car Masters historic series recently announced it would compete at more V8 rounds in 2015.
The Australian GT championship features vehicles built to the internationally consistent GT3 specification. Already it has entrants from brands including Audi, Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini and in 2015 is expected to add Bentley and other marques to the list. An under category of GT4 including brands like Lotus and Ginetta is also a part of the potential mix.
Brands like Jaguar and Dodge (via Viper) are also potential entrants as well as Corvette and even Chevrolet, via a specially built version of the Camaro. As noted above Nissan races in the series internationally but has no current plans to run a factory entry in the Australian title.
Pictures courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and http://www.bathurst12hour.com.au.
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Written byMike Sinclair
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