American Supercar maker Mosler have been given the green light for their MT900 car to race in the GT3 Category of the British GT Championship.
In 2009, the car did not meet the British GT regulations, after an appeal from the Ascari team, who's drivers went on to become Champions.
The car, which had been homologated by the Belgian National Authority, the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, hadn't had the permit extended to cover it in the UK series.
After a meeting between the MSA (Motor Sports Association), Chief Executive Colin Hilton, Martin Short, Mosler Europe Managing Director, the SRO Managing Director Stephane Ratel and the BRSCC Chief Executive Bernard Cottrell, it was announced that any GT3 car that has been homologated by the Belgian National Authorities or any other National Authority (ASN) may be eligible to race in the British GT3 Category, subject to the regulations and approval from the MSA in each instance.
After the announcement, Colin Hilton said: “The MSA had confirmed to SRO that the British GT Championship regulations may allow for the inclusion of cars that have been homologated by a national ASN. This allowance will be subject to approval in each instance by the MSA”
Martin Short said about the meeting and decision: “I am delighted that Colin Hilton took this matter in hand, and got us all sat around a table to sort last year's regulations mess within British GT. Last year, the MSA had to go by the written regulations and I had no problem with that.
Stephane, Bernard and myself all recognise that despite SRO’s wishes that the Mosler should be in the Championship, the regulations were not in order. That has now been fixed, and whilst we are all waiting for the final regulations to be passed off by the MSA, it should now be a matter of course.
“Last year, the British GT regulations were tested by the Ascari team, headed by the drivers and subsequent British GT Champions, the Jones brothers. They contested that despite the Mosler having been admitted specifically by Stephane Ratel, the regulations did not support the Mosler entry. The MSA Court agreed, and the Mosler was excluded from running in the points scoring GT3 part of the British GT, and a number of race results were removed from the record. Mosler immediately withdrew from the remainder of the British GT.
In November I had a meeting with Colin Hilton to discuss what had happened. Mr. Hilton thereafter called for a meeting to be held. Due to commitments by Stephane Ratel, that meeting could not take place until February 4th.
The result of that meeting is that GT3 cars homologated nationally by the RACB (and other ASN’s) subject to approval by the MSA, can be admitted within the British GT3 Championship in a full points scoring and title contention position.
Last year was very traumatic for us, and had a negative effect nationally worldwide with the Mosler.
The British GT Championship is very important for Mosler. As a direct result of being part of it in 2009 we sold 5 cars into the Australian GT, then more into Asian GT and now Japan. This regulation change within British GT highlights that what happened was nothing to do with the car, and should give confidence to other ASN’s around the world that the Mosler can continue to be accepted.
This decision is obviously extremely important for us, and my employees and present and future customers.
This action has further implications not just for Mosler. This means that other small car manufacturers now have the ability to Nationally homologate their cars with the RACB, or other MSA acceptable ASN’s, and race head to head and equally against the ‘Grand Marques’ in the British GT. I believe that this is very important. Rollcentre Racing entered British GT in 2000 with a TVR that we built ourselves, and laid the foundations for TVR’s eventual entry into the Le Mans 24 Hours. We subsequently entered Le Mans 24 Hours 5 times, as a direct result of our apprenticeship in British GT.
In my opinion, small manufacturers should be able to be allowed to race against the controlling powers of the ‘Grand Marques’. At the moment, the FIA requirement for 300 cars to be made per year is what keeps Mosler and many other marquees out of full FIA GT3 status. If this had been applied to racing 50 years ago, Ferrari and Aston Martin may not be where they are now.”
Stephane Ratel had this to say: “We always considered that nationally homologated cars [such as the Mosler] were eligible in the GT3 class of the British Championship but the MSA did not have national homologations.”
“Consequently, Mosler made an official request to have the wording of the rules corrected in the GT3 class of British GT. This request was passed on to the MSA and approved. Regulations will be modified accordingly prior to the closing date of entries in the 2010 Championship.”
Short also went on to say that he was disappointed that it had taken so long to sort out these problems and that the team have lost the find of 2009 to a rival.
Now as the car has been given the green light to race in the British GT3 Championship in 2010, Rollcentre Racing, who ran the Mosler last year, will be making an entry and will be looking for drivers for the season, which starts at Oulton Park over the weekend of the 3rd – 5th April.
