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Now we've seen it all before, in the 90s: DTM trying to grow beyond its means (with a little help from Bernie). But yesterday's news that Japanese brands will race in the series from 2014 onwards may prove interesting.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/103475
Comments
This is GT, and GT is too far from Touring and too close to open wheel.
They would have been better off doing a deal with V8 Supercars.
At least I thought it was till I saw that Mika Salo was leading Sebastian Bourdais, with Nick Heidfeld not far back.
Turns out that it is a two-race weekend of 300 klms each, and driver changes required mid-race. The people they got as co-drivers was a bit interesting:
Nick Heidfeld
Marco Andretti
Sebastian Bourdais
Mika Salo
David Brabham
Graham Rahal
Frank Montagny
Justin Wilson (Minardi - yay!)
Ryan Briscoe
Will Power
Stephane Sarrazin
Giani Morbidelli (Minardi yay!)
Lucas Di Grassi
Tonio Liuzzi
Max Papis
Plus a bunch of other dudes I haven't heard of. There were guys from F1, Indycar, DTM, NASCAR, Le Mans, BTCC, and other series.
Wonder what they have planned for the COTA round next year.
Also from looking at the ticket site they will be using the short version of the circuit. A shame too since Frosty tried the full version out a few months back and said turn 11 was going to be real good in the V8s. Should still be pretty good with the short version though and from what I have seen the V8s have gathered a fairly good following here in the States.
I just noticed that the F1 & V8 rounds at Abu Dhabi are on the same weekend this year. Channel Ten won't know what to do with itself.
What it all means is that next year could see winners from Nissan & Mercedes Benz, and one wonders how that would go down with the essentially outer-suburban Holden & Ford nutjobs that are the mainstay of the support base for this series.