Britcar chairman James Tucker has outlined his plans for the future of the series. Speaking at the Britcar 1000km meeting at Silverstone he promised a return to the 24 hour format for next year’s Silverstone September date.
The 24 Hours will form the final round a six date championship, joining four further British tracks as well as Spa-Francorchamps on the itinerary for a radically overhauled series.
After two years of competing in separate races the GT arm of Britcar’s series – currently the MSA British Endurance Championship – will recombine with the Britcar Production Championship. The cars – ranging from former Touring cars to production based Minis and Mazda MX-5s – from the Production series will be split into two classes.
GT3 and GT4 cars will also be welcomed into their own classes, the series open to both currently homologated and older-spec cars with balancing between them carried out with a mix of ballast and extra time added to a minimum pitstop time. The premier class – LMPX – however will be given over to prototype cars, similar to the CN Prototype chassis of the SPEED EuroSeries.
With the exception of the 24 Hours Britcar will cease to run its own race weekend, instead taking track time on a pre-existing meeting. All weekends, with the obvious exception of the 24 Hours, will include two 30 minute qualifying sessions and two 90 minute races.
The first of which will be open only to the LMPX, GT3 and GT4 classes – though Tucker was open to other series, including the SPEED Euroseries or Aston Martin GT4 Challenge, joining the grid. The second race will be open to all Britcar classes. Thus, the 2014 plans preserve the same amount of race time for the GT and Production classes as they have enjoyed at each event this season.
Tucker also intends a Britcar winter series, likely to take the place of the series’ November night races.
