This will be the opening round of the new for 2010 GT Trophy Endurance Series. After the success of the GT Cup Championship, Bute Motorsport were approached by a number of competitors who felt that a well organised series of longer ‘Endurance’ type of events would be a welcome addition to the calendar. So, in 2010, Marc Haynes and his team at Bute Motorsport working with MSVR have organised two rounds of The GT Trophy to ‘test the water’ before organising as many as six rounds next season that will hopefully include several overseas events and a range of duration upto possibly 12 hours.
The opening round is on the historic Brands Hatch GP Circuit and will last two hours. During this time it will be mandatory to make two pit stops to allow for refuelling and driver changes.
There will be four Groups, based upon the power to weight ratio and overall performance of the cars.
Group 1: Cars with a power to weight ratio equal to or greater than 0.35bhp/kg
Group 2: Cars with a power to weight ratio of less than 0.35bhp/kg
Group 3: Cars with a power to weight ratio of less than 0.30bhp/kg
Group 4: Cars with a power to weight ratio of less than 0.25bhp/kg
With entries from Vipers, Corvettes, Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Ginetta, Lotus, Honda, KTM, Venturi and Mosler the handicap system will ensure close racing with in each Group. Unlike the GT Cup ‘pro’ drivers will be allowed to enter and the handicap system should also help equalise these different driver line up combinations.
To establish this handicap each driver will complete at least three timed laps in the official qualifying session. The handicapper will then establish a target lap time for each car and driver. This will be arrived at by combining the lap times from each driver during qualifying, plus any other information available, then a handicap time will be set for each car. This handicap time will then be added to the minimum pit stop time for each car. The organisers reserve the right to add an additional time penalty if the team or driver starts lapping more than 2.5% faster than his best qualifying or practice time. This should stop any ‘sand-bagging’ in qualifying !
Changes in weather condition will also be factored in during the race.
