Ratel Explains “Key Element” of Moving U.S. IGTC Round to COTA

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Stephane Ratel said moving the North American leg of Intercontinental GT Challenge to Circuit of The Americas, but most importantly, earlier in the calendar year, has been made in efforts to retain manufacturer participation for the duration of the season.

Last weekend’s Desder Indianapolis 8 Hour brought to the end of a seven-year run of Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosting the globe-trotting GT3 series, either as the season finale or penultimate round of the season.

Instead, the new Texas 8 Hour, scheduled for May 8, will now serve as the second race of five, and crucially ahead of both of the Nürburgring 24 and 24 Hours of Spa on the calendar.

Ratel believes this move will ensure manufacturer participation in the U.S. round, which has traditionally seen OEMs no longer in contention for the drivers or manufacturers’ titles reduce or eliminate support in the races following Spa.

“If you look at the evolution of all the events, the one in America has been the most difficult one,” Ratel told Sportscar365.

“I think one of the key elements is to put it before Spa, because we’ve seen a tendency of some manufacturers not returning.

“To have three of the events before Spa, it was [a strategic decision] clearly.

“When Greg [Gill, SRO America President and CEO] came with this thing that [Indianapolis] may be repaving, I thought, ‘OK, what can we do in America?’

“One of the key elements was to do an event that would be before Spa but also an event to make sure as many cars will go, and not like, ‘Oh we’re going to see where we are in the championship and we’ll see if we’ll continue the efforts or not.'”

The IGTC title came down to a two-manufacturer battle at Indy, largely in part due to BMW electing not to send Pro class entries, typically fielded by Team WRT, to both the Suzuka 1000km and Indianapolis.

While Suzuka will now end the season in early September, Ratel believes the addition of the GT300 class from SUPER GT beginning with next year’s edition, will provide the event a significant boost.

“The last event will be Suzuka and Suzuka, I really think, will be a very important event with both SUPER GT and SRO together, we had 30 cars, and if you look at the GT300 grid of SUPER GT, that will make a big event,” said Suzuka.

“Of course the public interest for SUPER GT being much higher, I think we’ll have a very important spectator event as well.”

The Texas 8 Hour at COTA will mark the third different venue in the U.S. that will host IGTC, which began with the California 8 Hour at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca from 2017-19.

“We’ve been to California, we’ve been to Indiana, let’s see how we will do in Texas with the 8 Hour,” said Ratel.

“We want to build our IGTC race with all of the efforts. Since it’s the biggest attendance we have in America, at COTA, we can build up on that.

“That doesn’t turn down any way Indy. We’re very happy to be here. I think it’s an amazing location to end the [GT World Challenge America] season and we’ll keep it that way.

“It’s not to take anything from this event, but for the 8 Hour, let’s see how it works in Texas and if we can finally grow it even further. I think we can grow it even more.

“I continue to believe there should be a major endurance race in America where a GT3 car wins overall.

“I have huge respect for Daytona and Sebring but the GT3s don’t win overall.”

Revised Calendar Could Allow Teams to Use Same Machinery for All Races Except N24

Ratel believes the revised IGTC calendar could theoretically provide teams, specifically privateers vying for the Independent Cup, an opportunity to use the same machinery for four of the five races.

“You still have some teams that do [full season] IGTC,” he said. “If you look at cars, the Nürburgring 24 is very special. You have especially German teams with German cars and special cars.

“I don’t see anybody that would have a car that should need to go from Texas to Germany.

“But it works that you can really do Bathurst, Texas, Spa and Suzuka with one car, and Nürburgring being something of own its own, where even drivers and teams will probably have a different structure to do it.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John