Throughout the winter, French GT Tour General Manager Olivier Loisy made several announcements aimed at expanding the grid of the French GT Tour including the introduction of LMP3s alongside the current GT3 cars, new race week-end formats, prospects of financial rewards for the participants and opening up the grid to the Renault RS01s.
“We introduced LMP3 at a time when some French teams were wondering whether they should stay or not in the GT category,” says Loisy. “For other French teams, moving to LMP3 was the opportunity to expand horizons (…) Our idea is not to oppose GT and LMP3 cars but simply to offer two attractive solutions at a price which is more affordable than typical European championships”.
In the end, only four LMP3s are present for the season opener in Nogaro: Two Ligiers apiece for Duqueine Engineering and Oak Racing.
Other teams such as Yvan Muller Racing, EuroInternational, N-Race, Graff Racing or Extreme Limite had intially expressed interest in the French series. They ultimately decided to commit to the ELMS and/or the VdeV championship.
On the GT side, situation is also concerning with only five Ferrari 488 GT3 present in Nogaro including three for CMR by Sport Garage, one for Duqueine Engineering and one for Yves Courage’s StrategiC. Several pillars of the GT Tour such as Raymond Narac’s Imsa Performance, Sebastien Loeb Racing, Jerome Policand’s team AKKA or Sainteloc Racing have decided to focus on VdeV, Blancpain GT or the 24 Hour Series with Policand telling DSC at the recent Blancpain GT Series test that the decision to introduce the LMP3s was behind the withdrawal of his team.
A few additional entries are expected during the season. Yet, with strong competition of healthy series such as the ELMS, Blancpain GT or VdeV, the French GT Tour short term prospects are looking grim.
Mat Fernandez (@matlemans)
