The Future of GT Racing: GT3

GT or Grand Touring racing has dramatically changed over the past 15-20 years. Long gone are the days of the Le Mans GT1 and GTP classes of the 90's. Exotics like the McLaren F1 GTR, Porsche 911 GT1, Toyota TS020(GT-One), Nissan R390, and the infamous Mercedes CLR all took advantage of the multiple loopholes in the GT1 rules; that the car must have a road going counterpart. Teams built one or two street legal cersions of their race car to satisfy the requirement. There also be suitable for public use. The ACO tested this by requiring space for a small buisness suitcase be avalible in the car. This led to Merc building a small cubby hole in some unused area underneath the rear.  The ACO  changed the rules for GT1 leading to the GTS (GT1) and GT (GT2) classes being created to allow only the true street going cars being classified for GT homologation.  In 2010 GT1 was phased out of   endurace racing leading to the rise of the GT2 class, now called GTE. Since GTE became an official class in 2011, the class has lost the variety it had when it debuted when it had eight different models race at Le Mans and in 2013 there was 6. Now the decline is not a big deal but the rise of another GT class is and is threating GTE/GT2 perch as the top class of GT.

GT3 is the fastest growing form of Motorsport there is today and the ACO has already taken notice of its rise. The European Le Mans Series allowed GT3 spec cars under the name GTC as a potential cure to their problem of not having a full grid and canceling races. At the 2013 3 Hours of Imola event, the GTC class had 14 entries while the top tier GTE class had 13. In the States GT3 spec cars race in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series and when the merger with ALMS to form the United Sportscar Racing both GTE and GT3 will be on the same track at the same time. The only series missing is the WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. But I think that in 2014 the ACO will realize that the majority of manufacturers are making GT3 spec cars and not GT2 spec as GT3 is not only cheaper but also has a wide variety of cars, including car models that are racing in GTE, but also produces better racing as seen worldwide. Do not be surprised if in 2015, GT3 cars will mix it up at Le Mans.