- Home
- TV Shows
-
TV Schedule
-
SPEED Showcase
-
- NASCAR
-
- Formula 1
- Auto Racing
- Moto Racing
- Cars
- Bikes
- Store
- Social
- Mobile
- Deals
- Videos
- Photos
GT Racing
DAGYS: Farewell To GT1
The once all-mighty category takes its final bow after more than a decade...
For many, GT1 will be remembered for the epic battles between Corvette and Aston Martin, both in the American Le Mans Series and at Le Mans. (Photo: LAT)
When the FIA GT1 World Championship kicks off next April in Nogaro, France, it will be with a different breed of GT cars, in what will no doubt signal a changing of the guards in the international sportscar racing scene.
For over the last decade, the GT1 platform had been considered the leader of the pack in the production-based ranks. The fire-breathing brutes, packing more than 600 horsepower and featuring extravagant bodywork, had been through a slow and painful death since 2008 but continued on life support in Stephane Ratel’s globe-trotting championship. Until now.
With the GT1 World Championship’s regulations having been in flux since its launch in 2010, little had we known that last month’s season finale in San Luis, Argentina was the final time the thunderous beasts would race in anger, at least in a professional event.
Confirmation of the change came last week when SRO chief executive officer Stephane Ratel announced the GT1 World Championship would be run entirely under GT3 regulations for next year, although confusingly retaining the GT1 series name. Efforts to see a mix of old-spec GT1 and GT3 cars fill the grid next year were abandoned in favor of the simpler single-specification formula.
It was undoubtedly a matter of time until the category, which began as GTS in the late nineties, would come to an end, as manufacturers looked to the less-costly GT2 and GT3 ranks to develop and promote their brands. Chevrolet was one of the last holdouts, with its legendary factory Corvette program only shifting to the ACO’s thriving GT2 category in 2009.
Chevy was very much the face of GT1 through the years, first with the Corvette C5-R in 1999, which took the bow-tie back to Le Mans, racking up numerous class victories at La Sarthe. But the Pratt & Miller squad also claimed overall honors at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, an around-the-clock enduro not typically won by a production-based car. It made GM’s triumph, one year after Dodge pulled off the same feat, help gain even more notoriety for the increasingly popular platform at the time.
The early years saw the iconic Dodge vs. Chevy rivalry, with the venerable ORECA Viper GTS-Rs taking a hat-trick of class victories at Le Mans, before the Pratt & Miller squad pulled through for what was their first of six GTS/GT1 wins in 2001, the same year it snatched overall honors at Daytona.
Chrysler had pulled its factory involvement at the end of 2000, but new nameplates arrived to take on the Corvettes. While the fast, but notoriously unreliable Saleen S7R made its mark in only a handful of races, the toughest challenge came from Prodrive, first with its privately funded Ferrari 550 Maranellos followed by the factory Aston Martin DBR9 effort. Both had epic duals with Corvette in the American Le Mans Series and at Le Mans, first with the C5-R followed by the introduction of the C6.R in 2005.
While Prodrive earned three wins at La Sarthe, Corvette was left virtually unopposed in the ALMS by 2008, which triggered its eventual move to GT2 and the demise of GT1 as a category in the ALMS. Two years later, GT1 was no more in the remaining ACO-licensed series as well, with the final Le Mans class victory going to the Larbre Competition Saleen in 2010.
GT1 soldiered on in the FIA GT Championship, with the new-look World Championship initially adopting a new spec of cars from Nissan, Lamborghini and Ford to go along with grandfathered models from Corvette, Aston Martin and Maserati. The entertaining sprint race format produced some of the closest-fought battles the platform had ever seen, but high running costs, coupled with a growing shortage of spare parts, made the aging GT1 formula unsustainable.
The writing was clearly on the wall that GT1 would never last forever. The platform thrived on factory involvement and was in a downhill spiral for the last three years due to the lack of exactly that. So it comes as no surprise that the sportscar racing world has moved on, now embracing two distinct platforms for the grand touring race cars.
But as we’ve seen with GT1, the question comes if GTE and GT3 would both survive the long-haul? History may already be repeating itself, as the ACO’s GTE category, formerly known as GT2, appears to already be down a similar path to GT1 that could spell trouble in the years to come.
Through increased factory involvement, with no fewer than six manufacturers either supporting or fielding works teams, costs in GTE have been skyrocketing The same has been the case in GT3, as new cars such as the McLaren MP4-12C and Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 have pushed others such as Aston Martin and Audi to produce or upgrade their existing machinery in order to keep up with their new, considerably more expensive competition.
While GT3 has strictly been limited to customer teams, GTE strives off factory involvement, and one could only question what would happen to the category if the likes of Chevy, BMW, Porsche and Ferrari pull out or move their support elsewhere?
It will be interesting to see how the next few years unfold, especially now with both platforms on the world's stage. Is there room for both, or could one be headed down a similar road of its predecessor?
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
For over the last decade, the GT1 platform had been considered the leader of the pack in the production-based ranks. The fire-breathing brutes, packing more than 600 horsepower and featuring extravagant bodywork, had been through a slow and painful death since 2008 but continued on life support in Stephane Ratel’s globe-trotting championship. Until now.
With the GT1 World Championship’s regulations having been in flux since its launch in 2010, little had we known that last month’s season finale in San Luis, Argentina was the final time the thunderous beasts would race in anger, at least in a professional event.
Confirmation of the change came last week when SRO chief executive officer Stephane Ratel announced the GT1 World Championship would be run entirely under GT3 regulations for next year, although confusingly retaining the GT1 series name. Efforts to see a mix of old-spec GT1 and GT3 cars fill the grid next year were abandoned in favor of the simpler single-specification formula.
It was undoubtedly a matter of time until the category, which began as GTS in the late nineties, would come to an end, as manufacturers looked to the less-costly GT2 and GT3 ranks to develop and promote their brands. Chevrolet was one of the last holdouts, with its legendary factory Corvette program only shifting to the ACO’s thriving GT2 category in 2009.
Chevy was very much the face of GT1 through the years, first with the Corvette C5-R in 1999, which took the bow-tie back to Le Mans, racking up numerous class victories at La Sarthe. But the Pratt & Miller squad also claimed overall honors at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, an around-the-clock enduro not typically won by a production-based car. It made GM’s triumph, one year after Dodge pulled off the same feat, help gain even more notoriety for the increasingly popular platform at the time.
The early years saw the iconic Dodge vs. Chevy rivalry, with the venerable ORECA Viper GTS-Rs taking a hat-trick of class victories at Le Mans, before the Pratt & Miller squad pulled through for what was their first of six GTS/GT1 wins in 2001, the same year it snatched overall honors at Daytona.
Chrysler had pulled its factory involvement at the end of 2000, but new nameplates arrived to take on the Corvettes. While the fast, but notoriously unreliable Saleen S7R made its mark in only a handful of races, the toughest challenge came from Prodrive, first with its privately funded Ferrari 550 Maranellos followed by the factory Aston Martin DBR9 effort. Both had epic duals with Corvette in the American Le Mans Series and at Le Mans, first with the C5-R followed by the introduction of the C6.R in 2005.
While Prodrive earned three wins at La Sarthe, Corvette was left virtually unopposed in the ALMS by 2008, which triggered its eventual move to GT2 and the demise of GT1 as a category in the ALMS. Two years later, GT1 was no more in the remaining ACO-licensed series as well, with the final Le Mans class victory going to the Larbre Competition Saleen in 2010.
GT1 soldiered on in the FIA GT Championship, with the new-look World Championship initially adopting a new spec of cars from Nissan, Lamborghini and Ford to go along with grandfathered models from Corvette, Aston Martin and Maserati. The entertaining sprint race format produced some of the closest-fought battles the platform had ever seen, but high running costs, coupled with a growing shortage of spare parts, made the aging GT1 formula unsustainable.
The writing was clearly on the wall that GT1 would never last forever. The platform thrived on factory involvement and was in a downhill spiral for the last three years due to the lack of exactly that. So it comes as no surprise that the sportscar racing world has moved on, now embracing two distinct platforms for the grand touring race cars.
But as we’ve seen with GT1, the question comes if GTE and GT3 would both survive the long-haul? History may already be repeating itself, as the ACO’s GTE category, formerly known as GT2, appears to already be down a similar path to GT1 that could spell trouble in the years to come.
Through increased factory involvement, with no fewer than six manufacturers either supporting or fielding works teams, costs in GTE have been skyrocketing The same has been the case in GT3, as new cars such as the McLaren MP4-12C and Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 have pushed others such as Aston Martin and Audi to produce or upgrade their existing machinery in order to keep up with their new, considerably more expensive competition.
While GT3 has strictly been limited to customer teams, GTE strives off factory involvement, and one could only question what would happen to the category if the likes of Chevy, BMW, Porsche and Ferrari pull out or move their support elsewhere?
It will be interesting to see how the next few years unfold, especially now with both platforms on the world's stage. Is there room for both, or could one be headed down a similar road of its predecessor?
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
LATEST HEADLINES: AUTO-RACING
-
LE MANS: Corvette On-Board Pass Returns For LM24
Watch! Live in-car and garage cameras from Corvette Racing during… -
LE MANS: Lotus LMP2 Cars Seized By Court
BREAKING: Lotus T128 parts seized by local courts over financial… -
LE MANS: Taylor Brothers Continuing Family Tradition
Second-generation racers Jordan, Ricky Taylor seek victory at Le… -
LE MANS: LM24 LMP1 Preview
John Dagys takes a team-by-team look at this year’s LMP1 class… -
DE CHAUNAC: Le Mans 1998, Extreme Tension
After two participations without podium with the Viper, 1998 was… -
LE MANS: Baron's Helping Hand At SRT
2012 LMP2 class-winning team owner and strategist drafted in to support… -
INDYCAR: Milwaukee-To-Elkhart Wisconsin Events For 2014?
From 1982-2007 there were at least two IndyCar races in Wisconsin:… - More News
