To the SRO, we are having this conversation... again. I think, I think I touched on this in a different editorial many moons ago. Sportscar365 and their writers pointed this out in a special editorial on their website as well. But this year is indeed make or break for the Intercontinental GT Challenge, the globetrotting endurance championship for GT3 cars. If something is not done to attract more entries that can run for manufacturers' points, I would say, this championship is one we will say au revoir, auf wiedersehen, arriva derci, gesundheit, and farewell to, before too long. We have seen many competitive teams aligned with GT3 brands come to the championship and do very well. There are fan bases for the signature events like the Bathurst 12 Hours at Mount Panorama in New South Wales, Australia, the Spa 24 Hours in Belgium, the Indianapolis 8 Hours at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
That being said, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365, John Dagys, points out that 2024 will be the make-or-break year for the championship, and I must say, I agree with him. Dagys points out that the reshaped calendar including Bathurst, the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring (which for years has survived as a standalone event organized by the Nurburgring and by the German Auto Club, the ADAC), and has been very successful, will also be included in this year's championship for the IGTC. Two of the events that struggled for not only entries, but recognition, the Kyalami 9 Hours at the Kyalami Grand Prix circuit in South Africa, and the Gulf 12 Hours at the Formula 1 Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, have been dropped.
The IGTC has the team and brand participation, and the driver participation. But that is not going to be enough. SRO has a myriad of other GT3 championships on its plate, globally in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia, and therefore, all those championships maybe ought to be the focused for the individual championships on the continent rather than having this really fun, albeit disjointed championship that has races on different continents for its own prize. They also already have their own manufacturers' championship that makes it possible for brands to accumulate points globally between the four championships, which might make the IGTC redundant. Maybe it is better to have the individual championships and just include the endurance races in the individual ones, namely, the Bathurst 12 Hours could be part of GT World Challenge Australia, the 24 Hours of Spa could be the cornerstone of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. The Indianapolis 8 Hours could be the cornerstone of GT World Challenge America.
Having a global championship where there is, no longer capabilities for manufacturers to sign up, and the hassle of extra registration that leads to anyway, might not be the way forward. Try and keep the important races but keep them in individual championships. The fields for some of the races have been massive while for others, such as the few times we saw the Kyalami 9 Hours in South Africa for example, have been paltry. As popular as GT3 racing is, GT3 is becoming the gold standard of production sports car racing at the global level for many championships. SRO created it, sure. It was the brainchild of SRO founder and President Stephane Ratel.
But now, we see it all over. In America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It is expected to be there among sports car racing fans. There is nothing too special about having a global endurance championship with different races that are logistically difficult to put together and to compete for separate trophies and titles. Maybe, just maybe, as fun as it was to see the IGTC go racing, it has outlived its usefulness. To the SRO, maybe you should do what I suggested above, and just make the marquee races a part of their own championships on each continent.
Having the Nurburgring 24 Hours could add spice to the championship. However, all the administrative concerns with different sanctioning bodies, the German sanctioning body for the Nurburgring itself, the SRO, and only a handful of the entries being certified by the SRO, is going to make for an administrative nightmare whether you do it on paper or do it online with registration forms to fill out for the teams, the team bosses, and the manufacturers. It will be a hubbub, a rumpus, a helter-skelter of online paperwork for the teams and the manufacturers. How many cars in a 30+ field of GT3 cars (called SP9 at the Nurburgring), will actually be registered for the IGTC?
I think it would be a good idea to break up the championship and have something else where each big endurance race is included as a part of a championship on each continent. It only makes sense. Do the European and American teams want to make investments to bring their cars to Australia or to the Middle East? It is hard to say. The freight costs have to be astronomical. The circuits, the quality of racing, the level of cars, teams, and drivers, in IGTC are all top notch. The biggest issues it has had over the years are all down to logistics and locations, even though there are also incentives for local cars, teams, and drivers, to compete.
One area I would keep is a manufacturers' cup where the brands can accumulate points for every championship, they race in. The trouble with IGTC is that some manufacturers registered and nominated points scoring drivers, while others did not. So, while I truly believe that the endurance aspect of what SRO wants to do with GT3 needs to be there, I just don't believe that a globetrotting championship is a workable idea anymore. The ball is in your court, SRO. Choose wisely, and maybe, just maybe, something can come out of this that will benefit GT3 racing in the long term, for teams, drivers, manufacturers, your organization, and for the fans who pay the money to come and see the races.
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