Quote:
Originally Posted by v8supes
Its been spoken about before and the reaction seemed to be quite downbeat at the time but is it now time for the British GT grid to be split by class with only the Silverstone GP round being GT3/GT4 combined?
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IMO no. Personally, I think that the combined GT3 and GT4 grid is British GTs USP compared to the other SRO GT series.
I think that splitting the grid into separate races for GT3 and GT4 wouldn't necessarily cause the GT3 and GT4 grids to expand. You'd have (at best) two 16-20 car races. It would still be interesting, and in better health than the GTWC America field, but some of the excitement of British GT comes from the multi-class format. Silverstone always attracts additional entries, and I can't imagine these additional entries would appear for a full-season even if track space emerged.
British GT has always been multi-class, the old Pirelli World Challenge held separate races for various categories, and in continental Europe SRO built up GT3 and GT4 championships as completely separate entities. If you were to impose a split championship now in Britain, I think that some of the GT4 teams would feel they were being demoted from the premier series.
I'm sure there are probably various administrative reasons behind not splitting the classes. Whilst not an important consideration, holding an additional 2-hour race at the meetings would also have an impact on track time, as well as reduce the support package the BRSCC and MSV have put together - how would you decide what to scrap out of GB3, GB4, Ginetta Juniors, Ginetta GT Academy, and the Ginetta GT Championship? Although admittedly the GT Academy and Ginetta GT Championship probably could be merged.