FIA GT World Championship 2012

[GTKers]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

And I've never seen IGTO on TV.

In italy you can watch IGTO on RAI... is like RTL.. and they also got presence on one channel live on Sky italia

You are german so ever tried with Sport1+ or Sport1 ???
I've seen nurburgring event on Sport1+ in Austria...

The Value of both championship is available on their website or presentation,
ADAC is present only on Motors and Kabel Eins,

IGTO has:
ESPN UK (NEW) MotorsTV Nelonen PRO TeleDeportes Canal+ deportes
SporTV Premiere Sport Viasat Sport/ MotorHD Canal Motor TenSports (India) Sport5
DIGI SPORT HD Romania
DIGI SPORT HD Hungary
DIGI SPORT Primo Canale RAI SPORT SPEED 2 USA SPEED Latin America (HL) SPEED Australia Setanta Africa MTV Lebanon MTV AL Lubnaniya World Orange Sport Teleticino, Sports TV , Sport 1+, Sport 1, Sportmania, Tyc, SeñalColombia

Here you can find a better list http://gtopen.net/page.php?cat=2&cont=42

[Speed-King]

It certainly isn't on regular Sport1 and Sport1 plus has a very very small viewer base... which actually goes for most of the channels you've listed.They are high tier pay TV - a lot of people could *technically* watch them, but no one really does.

I'll give you RAI in Italy, but the rest isn't even a blip on the radar and some of these programms like Speed2 are over internet only.

DTM does the same sh*t, claiming that their races are being watched in 180 countries or some such, but that's really just PR speak.

[GTKers]

Well in spain is the same as RAI they got the national TV in live and also sky sport live, Portugal national sport tv for free, Turkey free in Hd, Finland same as Italy with nelonen, UK/ireland 3 channels, frnace only motors, India in tenSport is huge, On all the east ( Czeck, slovack, Romania , Hung) they got 3 tv mostly free as Sport1, africa setanta is the 2nd best channel for sport...
I think that you should reconsider a little bit the whole context, I've done the same before the start of the season and then I realized that was relly funny that noone has noticed such changement... Maybe we are to focus on some ideas, as I was with BES, then dicovered noone outside racing know it, no people at the track and there is no coverage at all...
Same with elms 2012...

Anyway I hope to see IGTO on global ESPN in 2013 as I have to move to USA and speed2 is rubbish...
Hope to learn some english too

[urdragon]

Originally Posted by GTKers

Here you can find a better list http://gtopen.net/page.php?cat=2&cont=42

Whooohoo there is GTopen on public tv (Teledeporte) in spain and no GT1!!!!, if Jesus pareja decides to built a true international champ and ratel doesn' t succeed I may see international GT racing on public TV!!!

[Gil Abobeleira]

Originally Posted by GTKers

... Portugal national sport tv for free, ...

No it isn't!

As well as a basic cable-IPTV subscription (minimum around € 20/month), you have to pay an additional fee of another € 20/month.

Mind you, there's only 4 free channels in Portugal (of which 3 are really really bad tv for the retarded population living in this POS place )

[urdragon]

EI french reports no reiter engineering at Russia (At GT1), if both championships weren't together that would mean 11 cars, we are lucky that reiter was interested in international venues..

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by urdragon

EI french reports no reiter engineering at Russia (At GT1), if both championships weren't together that would mean 11 cars, we are lucky that reiter was interested in international venues..

Reiter also pulled out of GT-Masters, so no surprise there. Guess the prince is sick of being a backmarker.

[urdragon]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Reiter also pulled out of GT-Masters, so no surprise there. Guess the prince is sick of being a backmarker.

But he was supposed to be pairing with Natalia Freidina at GT3? so, he is not supposed to be absent in Russia, according to EI.

Personally, I think maybe all the Enge issue, may have any connection to Prince Albert, but that's my imagination.
Anyway AVTUT issues may be more related to Reiter than allways to himself, the full Ferrari amateur pair hasn't have better results, and that car has given less problems.

[rich07]

So no Super Peter? Well this sucks

Not sure if this has been known for a while but Valmont won't be at Russia either.

[FAS33]

I've watched a few of these GT races that youse are into, but imo they are really nice and all but find it a bit entertaining, and as a fan of our very own series (V8 Supercars). I can bear with this one , at least they have nice cars in here and better sounding too!! just not into DTM. its a bit boring and not very popular. GT3 racing i can bear, but its got good and boring parts (like nearly all the racing series on earth) just wishd I had SPEED TV too try and get into this series more!

[rich07]

So the Audi of Ortelli and Vanthoor wins the qualifying race. Totally forgot that Moscow was this weekend.

[GTKers]

watching the Champ Race...
RIDICULOUS tv production this time... if they do not clean their cameras how could we see something?????!!!
Half of the track is clear and the last part is impossible...

[urdragon]

What a pathetic Ford GT pair, clearly pay drivers this time.

[helgi]

Was able to watch races from the grandstands. Awful weather even for Russian autumn. I'm sure they had to arrive a week or two later when there's an Indian summer. The weather would be much better and beautiful decorations of yellow leaves would add some colours. And of course today there was that Belgium GP. No wonder many of those who could come to the track preferred to stay at home.
PS Talked to Oliver Jarvis in the paddock. A really great and open character. Wish him all the best.

[rich07]

Thanks for your thoughts as a spectator Helgi. What was the atmosphere like? Many people trackside? Etc

[helgi]

Well, I should say, it was a great day in spite of a terrible weather. I live only 80 km far from Moscow, and the track is about the same distance from the capital (in fact, it is situated in the middle of rural area, rounded with forests and fields). But I had to wake up at 4.00 am because for me it took about 3 or 4 hours to arrive there in time. As I went by train I can say that even railway conductors noticed: "There's some racing again". As for atmosphere it was like a real holiday. Well, in summer there were lots of spectators and this week-end not every (even in Moscow) autosports fan decided to left his warm living room with TV and Belgium GP for some live racing. And it's pity. Maybe, we are just not ready for this.
In fact, we have a great autosport history. Since 50's and till late 80's racing was very popular. Well, there were almost no professional drivers here (many of them were working {were reckoned} for some taxi parks, were engineers and test-drivers for huge car factories such as VAZ (Lada), GAZ (Volga), AZLK (Moskvitch) and so on). And karting was almost a national kind of sport. There were hundreds of karting clubs. But, of course, for all it was only a hobby, nobody connected their future with racing and race driver career as there was no one at all. And in 90's there was no time and money for racing. Even today, when our economy (not that ghost money from banks and other crap but a real sector of heavy industry and high tech) is rising a bit, only oil companies (and, to say the truth, the methods of their money making is not popular among some people and me too) have some opportunity to spend some rubles for racing.
So, we have history and, all in all, love racing, but that shock of 90's had a real heavy impact on those who, maybe, even want to watch racing live, but is not able to do it. There're still too many problems to solve every day and people prefer to have a quite rest, go fishing, for example. And teenagers, who have no idea of our own racing, better go to some club or disco.
Of course, the track is rather twisty and better suits for touring cars - if it wasn't raining there would be no overtaking at all I think. So, we have no chances to host a WEC round. In fact it could be a real disaster - I don't think there would be enough people to watch all the 6 hours of racing.
Besides, FIA GT commentators said that Moscow Raceway is the first purpose built race track in Russia. It was written in the booklet too but it's not truth. As you know there's Smolensk ring that hosted a Truck GP for 2 or 3 years, there's an autodrom near Nizhniy Novgorod and beautiful track in Kazan. All these tracks were built in 2008-2009. There's an ADM track built some 10 years ago or so.
All in all, I'd better be an optimist. As those hills and fields, covered with rainy fog, that you can see from a grandstand in turns 4-5, our racing future is not clear. But I'm sure someday we'll host some more sportscar racing and our spectators recollect the best memories of our own drivers and machinery of the past to come to the track and support modern prototypes, that are, undoubtedly, are the real pinnacle of motor racing. I really hope that there will be our sportscars there too. But it's a different story.
I'm sure that all that suspiciousness and pessimism from an average European or US or Australian fans about sportscar racing prospects here in Russia - all that based on a wrong idea or notion of our country in whole. We are not Europe, in fact, but we are not an Asia too. We had some great racing in the past and the fact that "Western" fans know little about it is an effect of the notorious Iron Curtain, that was built not only from our side, and a bad effect of some improper mass-media workers that talk about all our autosport in disparaging way.
I really hope that all the GT drivers who talked to our fans understand that there's a base on which you can built not a show racing in the middle of the town but a proper sporting events. That's it.

[The Badger]

Good post Helgi ..... glad you enjoyed your weekend

I guess racing in general is quite prohibitive in Russia , considering the cost of the average race car ..... but there is money there .

[rich07]

Thanks Helgi that was an interesting read from a Russian motorsports fan's point of veiw, something I've never seen before. There certainly is motorsport in Russia, theres the RTCC and Russian GT that I know of-mostly thanks to this forum.

[helgi]

I should say, auto cross (some buggies, 4x4 and even trucks) is very popular as it's rather cheap. Rallying is very popular but, for me, it seems that all that rallying drivers enjoy only themselves and look at it like a hobby. In fact many fans talk about rally all day long but nothing is done in that area. I can remember only 6th place for Lada 2106 in late 70's at Acropolis (I'm mistaken, of course, but I have no time to check where) and European title for Evgeny Vasin who drove Opel Astra some 15 years ago or so. And racing is much more expensive.
For sure, we could built an F1 engine in mid 60's but all that planned economy said its word. Of course, there were some advantages at that time - there was more stability in terms of money, but total bureaucracy was a real disaster. Most of interesting ideas in automobile sphere were postponed or cut because engineers had to sign tons of papers in cabinets of their chiefs who, in their turn, waited for a sign from immediate bosses - and so on up to the very top. No wonder new models appear once a year and usually differ by small upgrades. And in that atmosphere there was no chance to test that F1 engine. Designers thought it could produce hp level comparable with Cosworth. But at Moskvitch factory there was no suitable dyno. And suitable one was at another institute but there was a queue already and the near-term chance to test it would be in a year or so time.
Today the situation is not better. We have an opportunity to built and test. But still have no money. Car makers usually say that our market is not full yet - it absorbs their production with a little advertising needed. When the market is full then they'll have to put their money into racing, for example. But, as you understand, it's going to be unstable.
In fact, even today we could produce some prototypes of CN class. There were some plans of a LMP2 machinery. But all is being hampered by lack of money because business doesn't put its money into projects that give little benefit in long term.
Well, they (different championship bosses) could ask TV, at least, to put some professional commentators instead of "akyns" (steppe "cowboy"-singer intoning about everything he sees). For example, it was a real torture to watch a first half of WEC, Silverstone at Eurosport, and it's not an overstatement. Maybe somebody can clone Mr.Hindhaugh and teach him Russian to get more fans into sportscar racing. We just can not enjoy a popularity when TV commentators are permanently talking only about F1 or even don't know what to talk about at all. So, it's really difficult and maybe there'll be no GT here next year, but we'd better be optimists.

[JackN]

Originally Posted by helgi

Besides, FIA GT commentators said that Moscow Raceway is the first purpose built race track in Russia. It was written in the booklet too but it's not truth. As you know there's Smolensk ring that hosted a Truck GP for 2 or 3 years, there's an autodrom near Nizhniy Novgorod and beautiful track in Kazan. All these tracks were built in 2008-2009.

Sorry for that, as you say it was written in the booklet AND we were told it by the circuit press officer! Glad you enjoyed your weekend though, it was a great experience for us.

[urdragon]

The pity was, as helgi said, the stand were quite empty, I don't know why but seems that the countryes/tracks that should be more interested (Non european venues) in the return of GT1 don't promote itself greatly like some have done. I miss the Chinese promotion at beijin. The video of the SLS it's not bad, but will not promote the series between local residents as the car shows.

With hexis leaving, it's up to ratel to secure a grid for the next year, but i find it quite hard.

[helgi]

Originally Posted by JackN

Sorry for that, as you say it was written in the booklet AND we were told it by the circuit press officer! Glad you enjoyed your weekend though, it was a great experience for us.

Thanks a lot for your work! I've read that booklet and, to say the truth, there were too many mistakes with transcription from Latin to Cyrillic spelling in names. But, as I said, it was a great day - an opportunity to talk to the drivers whom I've seen only in TV for the past 15 years.

[Ferrari333SP]

So what's this about the India round of FIA GT1 moving to Donington Park instead of India?

[urdragon]

Originally Posted by Ferrari333SP

So what's this about the India round of FIA GT1 moving to Donington Park instead of India?

According to Russia and slovakia 2nd success the indians are fleeing, this championship is doomed, even that the GT3 class is very strong, curiously, seems that lack of factories involvement and lack of media expectation dooms any customer team international championship, the WEC is full brand dependence, a progress for motorsport...

It will be suicidal to continue with this ruleset even out of the FIA and with grid number of cars freedom, better adopt BES calendar with only 4 international flyaway rounds.

[GT3.14]

Originally Posted by urdragon

It will be suicidal to continue with this ruleset even out of the FIA and with grid number of cars freedom, better adopt BES calendar with only 4 international flyaway rounds.

But that would make too much sense!