2019 GT Super Series - She's Done!

[RealRacingRoots]

Baku Grand Prix - Practice 1 Results



Baku Grand Prix - Practice 2 Results



Results and the Report for Qualifying can be found at RejectSport. A reminder that these qualifying times are only for Race 1. Race 2's grid will be set by the fastest laps of every who finishes classified in Race 1. Cars that do not finish classified in Race 1 will not be partaking in Race 2.

[RealRacingRoots]

The full race report and results from Race One of The Baku Grand Prix can be found at RejectSport.

Fastest Lap – Car 01 (Solvalou Lamborghini – Chris Winter) – 2:10.730

IIDOTR and ROTR nominations will encompass both races, and thus will be left for after Race Two.

Car 55 (Tom Douglas Saleen - James Douglas) has been assessed a 15 Second Penalty for causing an Avoidable Collision with Car 41 (Best In The World Lamborghini - Koyomi Setou)

Starting Grid for Baku Grand Prix Race 2:

(Inside - Outside, Bold and Italics denotes Pole Position)

Row 1
Car 03: Antonio Fazio (Solvalou) - Car 01: Morgan Le Fay (Solvalou)

Row 2
Car 40: Tomo Kazama (MacMillan) - Car 63: Jacques Malenfant (Carson)

Row 3
Car 43: Markus Jacobson (MacMillan) - Car 25: Giulio Mari (Pagani)

Row 4
Car 2: Andrej Kremnicky (Ravenwest) - Car 28: Alexis Tantovich (Scuderia Italia)

Row 5
Car 64: Oliver Jones (Carson) - Car 14: Ryota Wong (Gerald Pereria)

Row 6
Car 05: Mai Tokugawa (Aoi) - Car 88: Carlton Cho (LKM)

Row 7
Car 19: David Simmons (Oliver) - Car 24: Felix Horvath (Pagani)

Row 8
Car 27: Enrico Molinaro (Scuderia Italia) - Car 6: Roland Davidson (Gulf)

Row 9
Car 18: Meiling Huang (Tsuchigami) - Car 45: Helena Bertinelli (Euromotor)

Row 10
Car 4: Ito Shidehara (Boutsen Ginion) - Car 13: Karen Faraday (Winton)

Row 11
Car 550: Jiri Komárek (Czechmate) - Car 41: Marlin Hortin (Best In The World)

Row 12
Car 3: Marie Alberta Luisa (Boutsen Ginion) - Car 15: Shane Sparks (Gerald Pereria)

Row 13
Car 34: Shin Ramirez (Oran) - Car 77: Joao Cavalcanti (Minarae)

Row 14
Car 17: Natalia Pavlovskaya (Czechmate) - Car 55: Joel Melrose (Tom Douglas)

Row 15
Car 78: Weiss von Koenig (Lynxe) - Car 70: Lorenzo Mancini (Astana)

[RealRacingRoots]

The full race report and results from Race Two of The Baku Grand Prix can be found at RejectSport.

Fastest Lap – Car 40 (MacMillan Ford – Tomo Kazama) – 2:10.635

Car 17 (Czechmate Ferrari - Natalia Pavlovskaya) has been assessed a 15 Second Penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Car 70 (Astana Ferrari - Lorenzo Mancini)

Car 15 (Gerald Pereria Lister - Shane Sparks) has been assessed a 15 Second Penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Car 70 (Astana Ferrari - Lorenzo Mancini)

Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race - Mai Tokugawa: Survived being severely outclassed to make sure Nathan Scott's hard work in Race 1 was not in vain.

Reject of The Race - Paul Travesen and Shane Sparks: Pretty much did nothing good, Sparks would have finished last in his race if Mancini wasn't stalled for a while after getting punted.

Final Weekend Results for the Baku Grand Prix:

Outright Results:

RTS 03 - 15 + 12 = 27 - 15 (10 Manu Trophy)
RTS 01 - 8 + 15 = 23 - 12 (9 Manu Trophy)
MacMillan 40 - 12 + 8 = 20 - 10 (8 Manu Trophy)
Carson 63 - 10 + 10 = 20 - 8 (7 Manu Trophy)
Pagani 25 - 5 + 6 = 11 - 6 (6 Manu Trophy)
BMS 28 - 6 + 3 = 9 - 5 (5 Manu Trophy)
LKM 88 - 4 + 2 = 6 - 4
MacMillan 43 -(13)+ 5 = 5 - 3 (4 Manu Trophy)
GP 14 - 1 + 4 = 5 - 2 (3 Manu Trophy)
BMS 27 - 3 + (18)= 3 - 1 (2 Manu Trophy)
Pagani 24 - 2 + (16) = 2 - 0 (1 Manu Trophy)
Aoi 05 -(11)+ 1 = 1 - 0
Oliver 19 -(15)+ 1 = 1 - 0

Independent's Trophy:

LKM 88 - 15 + 15 = 30 - 10 Indie
Oliver 19 - 10 + 12 = 22 - 9 Inide (wins tiebreak via FL)
Aoi 05 - 12 + 10 = 22 - 8 Indie
Tsuchigami 18 - 8 + 6 = 14 - 7 Indie
Boutsen 3 - 6 + 5 = 11 - 6 Indie
Euromotor 45 -(15)+ 8 = 8 - 5 Indie
Czechmate 550 - 5 + 1 = 6 - 4 Indie
Minarae 77 - 4 +(11)= 4 - 3 Indie
Winton 13 -(12)+ 4 = 4 - 2 Indie
BITW 41 -(11)+ 3 = 3 - 1 Indie
Boutsen 4 - 2 +(12)= 2
TDR 55 -(13)+ 2 = 2
Czechmate 17 -(14)+(13)=(13.5)
Astana 70 -(16)+(14)=(15)
Lynxe 78 - 3 + X = X
Oran 34 - 1 + X = X

[RealRacingRoots]

MacMillan loses appeal against Indianapolis and Gatineau exclusions

CWG Team MacMillan has lost its appeal against their cars excluded from the Round of The United States and the Molson GT Gatineau in June.

The Factory Ford outfit had gone to the Court of Appeals to argue it's case that it was not correct for the team to lose it's results from Indianapolis and Road Gatineau, which included a overall victory for Rhys Davies and Tomo Kazama in Canada. But after a hearing in London on Tuesday, the GT Super Series has confirmed that the appeal court upheld the original stewards' verdict.

The Davies and Kazama car, as well as the team car driven by Darren Older Jr. and Markus Jacobson, were excluded from the results from those events after a protest from BMS Scuderia Italia into the legality of their Ford GTs. A report from the GTSS Stewards and Technical Delegation concluded that the Ford GTs that were run were not of a legal technical specification in reference to a difference between the car's homolgated specification and what was brought to Indianapolis and Gatineau, Quebec.

The team filed a formal appeal during the Baku Grand Prix weekend, with the hearing held in London over the last few days. A statement from the Appeal court confirmed that the stewards' decision was upheld, that the exclusions were confirmed with the results for the Round of The United States and the Molson GT Gatineau are now deemed official more than a month past when those races were run.

As a result, Carson Speedworks drivers Joey Alliot and Jacques Malenfant have been officially declared the winners of the Molson GT Gatineau after they finished second overall behind Davies and Kazama.

[RealRacingRoots]

Round of Germany - Pre-Qualifying Results

Weather: Constant Light Rainfall



The Top 16 partake in the rest of the weekend. The points tables in the OP did get updated in lieu with CWG Team MacMillan's exclusion be official.

[CaptainGetz12]

I suppose I should consider joining the GT Super Series. I'll inquire for any openings should they come up.

[RealRacingRoots]

Round of Germany - Practice 1 Results

Weather: Heavy Cloud but Dry



Round of Germany - Practice 2 Results

Weather: Heavy Cloud and Dry -> Light Cloud and Dry



Results and the Report for Qualifying can be found at RejectSport. The weather was light cloud and dry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t99KH0TR-J4

[RealRacingRoots]

Mercedes-Benz Announce 2020 Customer Program

At a press event the morning of the 2019 GT Super Series Round of Germany, Mercedes-Benz announced their intention to supply a car for Independent teams for the 2020 GT Super Series campaign.

Being developed in conjunction with AMG and Ray Mallock Ltd., the new race car will be based on a new road car that will be unveiled at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show. The program will follow in the footsteps of the rejuvenated Maserati GTSS program in supplying cars and trackside support for Independent Trophy entries in their bids for Independent's Trophy glory. There will be options for the teams to lease the vehicle or buy it outright with the trackside support being made available as long as the car is homologated for GTSS competition.

A launch customer is expected to be announced at the same time as the unveiling of both cars. Precision Motorsports, who run the Factory Mercedes entry in Formula 1, have stated that they have no intentions to run in the GT Super Series and will continue to focus on their efforts to be F1 World Champions.

[CaptainGetz12]

Mercedes-Benz Announce 2020 Customer Program

At a press event the morning of the 2019 GT Super Series Round of Germany, Mercedes-Benz announced their intention to supply a car for Independent teams for the 2020 GT Super Series campaign.

Being developed in conjunction with AMG and Ray Mallock Ltd., the new race car will be based on a new road car that will be unveiled at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show. The program will follow in the footsteps of the rejuvenated Maserati GTSS program in supplying cars and trackside support for Independent Trophy entries in their bids for Independent's Trophy glory. There will be options for the teams to lease the vehicle or buy it outright with the trackside support being made available as long as the car is homologated for GTSS competition.

A launch customer is expected to be announced at the same time as the unveiling of both cars. Precision Motorsports, who run the Factory Mercedes entry in Formula 1, have stated that they have no intentions to run in the GT Super Series and will continue to focus on their efforts to be F1 World Champions.

Can I ask what the car will be? I may be interested in either the factory or customer car for it.

[RealRacingRoots]

The full race report and results from the Round of Germany can be found at RejectSport.

Weather: Light -> Heavy Cloud cover and Dry.

Fastest Lap – Car 40 (MacMillan Ford – Davies/Kazama) – 1:50.752

Car 550 (Czechmate Ferrari - McCracken/Komarek) has been assessed a 15 Second Penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Car 55 (Tom Douglas Saleen - Douglas/ Melrose)

Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race – Patrick Feldhoffer and Helena Bertinelli: Twenty-Ninth to Eleventh in a Euromotor. Need I say more.

Reject of The Race – Rhys Davies: I mean a pair of spins from a near surefire win is one way to blow it..

[RealRacingRoots]

Gilbert: Fazio's Loyalty, "Finally Rewarded"

Racing Team Solvalou's team principal Marco Gilbert heralded the overall victory for Antonio Fazio as "a long time coming" for the Factory Lamborghini driver.

Fazio and driving partner Emma Pescatore took their first combined overall victory at the Round of Germany at the Nurburgring, with it being Fazio's first victory in the series. Fazio has been a part of RTS's driver program since he first drove for them in Formula Renault 2.0 out of karting in 2011 and has driven for them in the GT Super Series since the series started in 2016. Before finally getting his breakthrough at the Nurburgring he finished second overall three times, the first of which was at the 2017 Round of Germany before the other two second place results coming this year in Abu Dhabi and in Baku.

"He is one of the hardest workers here at Solvalou," stated Marco Gilbert, "...and it was about time he finally saw the fruits of his labor. When you are loyal to my family and to Solvalou you will be rewarded, and it's been a long time coming to see Antonio get a reward he truly deserves."

Fazio had to survive a late race push from ARWS and F1 World Champion Rhys Davies after the Solvalou team jumped him to the lead of the race through the pit stops. Davies would cut down a deficit of five seconds before spinning out at turn 8 before he had a chance to attack Fazio. Davies would not give up and re-catch up and then pass Fazio for the lead before Fazio would rally to take the lead back a lap later. After Fazio retook the lead the win was all but secured when Davies had a second successive spin from second place.

"Fazio has learned and grown a lot since first driving the Lamborghini for us. If this was a few years ago he would have caved to the pressure from (Rhys) Davies. Davies is one of the best in the world and to see Fazio stand up to him like that was truly special. With Ford now showing their true form, they should be unstoppable. But Emma (Pescatore) and Antonio proved that anything is possible."

.

Mercedes SLR-AMG GTM Debuts at Frankfurt, Ferdinand United announced as Launch Customer

Mercedes-Benz's upcoming flagship super sports: the SLR-AMG and it's racing version the SLR-AMG GTM have made their debut at the International Motor Show Germany.

The SLR-AMG GTM will see its racing debut at the start of the 2020 Rolex GT Super Series season, where it was announced in Frankfurt the first customer for the V8-powered car will be Austrian team Ferdinand United. The Spielberg-based outfit have had a long standing partnership with Mercedes, and currently run Mercedes vehicles in the ADAC GT Masters and as one of their two customer teams in the DTM, alongside Black Falcon. This is the second time in recent years that Ferdinand United have looked to expand out of central Europe, after taking part in the AutoReject Nations Championship last year.

The race car uses a re-tuned version of the road going variant's Turbocharged V8, but with the main difference being the turbo has been removed for the race car. The purpose of this being to ease maintenance requirements, as well as lengthen the time between engine rebuilds. Although exact figures haven't been made public, the engine still makes north of 625 horsepower with the car weighing 1230 kilograms. While the weight figure of the car is 30 kilos above the current minimum within the GTSS regulations, a Mercedes spokesperson stated that this is due to GTSS management increasing the minimum weight to that figure for the 2020 season.

Driving the SLR-AMG GTM for Ferdinand United will be their current DTM driver Darren Cardel, with the second driver set to be announced at a later date.

[RealRacingRoots]

Round of Belgium - Pre-Qualifying Results

Weather: Light Cloud and Dry



The Top 16 partake in the rest of the weekend.

[RealRacingRoots]

Round of Belgium - Practice 1 Results

Weather: Light Cloud and Dry



Round of Belgium - Practice 2 Results

Weather: Clear and Dry



Results and the Report for Qualifying can be found at RejectSport. The weather was dry and hot as fugg.

[RealRacingRoots]

The full race report and results from the Round of Belgium can be found at RejectSport.

Weather: Clear and Dry, Hot (By Belgium standards at least)

Fastest Lap – Car 40 (MacMillan Ford – Davies/Kazama) – 2:12.317

Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race – James Douglas and Joel Melrose: The pair finally did the thing, were ok come race day.

Reject of The Race – Jiri Komarek: A big blow to McCracken’s title push with the Czech national having no pace come race day.

[RealRacingRoots]

Round of China - Pre-Qualifying Results

Weather: Light Cloud and Dry



The Top 16 partake in the rest of the weekend.

[Klon]

Alright, things need to be mixed up. From next weekend onwards, Marlin Hortin becomes the starting driver of car 11 and Rêdûr Jaffer becomes the second driver of car 41.

[RealRacingRoots]

The change in lineup for BITW going forwards starting with the Round of Malaysia has been noted. This will be the second non-premeditated change in lineup for the 11, and the first for the 41.

Round of China - Practice 1 Results

Weather: Clear and Dry



Round of China - Practice 2 Results

Weather: Moderate Cloud and Dry



Results and the Report for Qualifying can be found at RejectSport. The weather was clear and dry.

[RealRacingRoots]

The full race report and results from the Round of China can be found at RejectSport.

Weather: Light Cloud and Dry

Cars 27 (Scuderia Italia Ferrari - Restov/van Walwijk) and 64 (Carson Corvette - Qi/Jones) will finish classified as they completed 90% of the Race Winner's distance.

Fastest Lap – Car 03 (Solvalou Lamborghini – Pescatore/Fazio) – 1:29.459

Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race – Fabian Rei and Ryota Wong: Making lemons out of lemonade like that is pretty remarkable.

Reject of The Race – Chris Winter: And then there’s the whiff from the championship leaders.

[RealRacingRoots]

Round of Malaysia - Pre-Qualifying Results

Weather: Heavy Cloud and Dry



The Top 16 partake in the rest of the weekend.

[RealRacingRoots]

Round of Malaysia - Practice 1 Results

Weather: Heavy Cloud and Dry -> Heavy Rainfall



Round of Malaysia - Practice 2 Results

Weather: Light Cloud and Dry -> Heavy Cloud and Dry



Results and the Report for Qualifying can be found at RejectSport. The weather was heavy cloud and dry to start, before heavy rainfall began.

[RealRacingRoots]

The full race report and results from the Round of Malaysia can be found at RejectSport.

Weather: Light Cloud and Dry

Fastest Lap – Car 01 (Solvalou Lamborghini – Winter/Le Fay) – 1:56.288

Car 03 (Solvalou Lamborghini - Pescatore/Fazio) will finish classified as they completed 90% of the Race Winner's distance.

Car 01 (Solvalou Lamborghini - Winter/Le Fay) has been assessed a 15 Second Penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Car 2 (Ravenwest Aston Martin - McKane Kremnicky)

Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race – Redur Jaffer: After not being able to show his worth all season, the shakeup at BITW pays off.

Reject of The Race – Carson Speedworks: Total Party Kill sees Chevy drop to fifth in the Manufacture’s Championship.

Next post will have championship permutations.

[RealRacingRoots]

It's the middle of the night in September and I'm bored. So, as it stands heading into Suzuka in regards to the championships. (If you don't feel like looking at the pastebin in the OP)

For the championships where points are awarded 15-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for overall position in the Top 10:

Racing Team Solvalou locked up the Teams Championship in Sepang, they have a 58 point gap over BMS Scuderia Italia with 27 Points left on the table.

In the World Driver's Championship:

Chris Winter and Morgan Le Fay are on 100 points in the World Driver's Championship in the 01 Solvalou, they have 1 Win, 3 Seconds and 3 Thirds
Nathan McKane and Andrej Kremnicky are on 96 points in the World Driver's Championship in the 2 Ravenwest, they have 2 Wins, 2 Seconds and 1 Third.
Matteo Rossi and Roland Davidson are on 91 points in the World Driver's Championship in the 6 Gulf, they have 2 Wins, 1 Second and 3 Thirds.
There are a maximum of 15 Points left on the table, as a result fourth place in the championship (63 Carson - Alliot Malenfant) are too far back being on 74 Points.

Initial Championship Permutations:

Winter/Le Fay will be World Drivers Champions no matter what if they finish in the Top Two positions. (115 or 112 Points)

If Winter/Le Fay finish Third overall (110 Points), McKane/Kremnicky have to Win the race to be champion (111 Points)

If Winter/Le Fay finish in Fourth (108 Points), McKane/Kremnicky have to finish First or Second to be champion. (111 Points for Win, 108 Points for Second; has tiebreak on Wins)

If Winter/Le Fay finish in Fifth or Sixth (106 for Fifth or 105 for Sixth), McKane/Kremnicky have to finish in the Top Three to be champion (111 for Win, 108 for Second, 106 for Third) assuming Rossi/Davidson don't win the race while at the same time the McKane/Kremnicky finishes third. If that happens, Rossi/Davidson would win the championship. (106 Points, has tiebreak on Wins)

Beyond that, it starts getting ugly with the additional chances for Rossi/Davidson to win the championship with second place results or lower. So uhh yeah not gonna write those down.

For the championships where points are awarded 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 for position in class, and 5-4-3-2-1 if an Independent finishes in the Top 5:

In the Manufacture's Trophy:

Aston Martin are on 149 Points in the Manufacture's Trophy with the Ravenwest 2 on 76 points, and the Gulf 6 on 73.
Lamborghini are on 133 Points in the Manufacture's Trophy with the Solvalou 01 on 77 Points, and the Solvalou 03 on 56.
There are a maximum of 19 points on offer for a 1-2 result, which leaves Ferrari on a combined 90 well out of reach.

Championship Permutations:

Aston Martin have to score at least Four points in any combination to put the Manufacture's Trophy outright out of reach (153 points).
If Aston Martin combine to only score Three points, (152 Combined) Lamborghini have to get a 1-2 result to win the Manufacture's Trophy on Tiebreaks (152 Combined Points, the 01 holding the Tiebreak with at least 86 Points individually).
If Aston Martin combine to only score Two points, (151 Combined) Lamborghini have to get a combined score of 18 points or more to win the championship either through a 1-2 or 1-3 result. (152 Combined for outright or 151 on tiebreaks with the 01 holding the Tiebreak with at least 85 Points individually)
If Aston Martin combine to only score One point, (150 Combined) Lamborghini have to get a combined score of 17 points or more to win the championship either through a 1-2, 1-3, 1-4 or 2-3 result (152 or 151 Combined for outright or 150 on tiebreaks with the 01 holding the Tiebreak with at least 84 Points individually)
If Aston Martin to not score any points, (149 Combined) Lamborghini have to get a combined score of 16 points or more to win the championship either through a 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 2-3 or 2-4 result. (152, 151, 150 Combined for outright or 149 on tiebreaks with the 01 holding the Tiebreak with at least 83 Points individually)

In the Independent's Trophy:

Melanie Bourne and Marie Alberta Luisa are on 74 Points in the Independent's Trophy in the 3 Boutsen Ginion, they have 1 Class Victory, 3 Seconds in Class, 1 Third in Class and no Top 5 Overall Finishes.
Peter Oliver and David Simmons are on 66 Points in the Independent's Trophy in the 19 Oliver, they have 0 Class Victories, 3 Seconds in Class and 1 Third in Class and no Top 5 Overall Finishes.
With 15 Points on the table, as a result third place in the championship (550 Czechmate - Phil McCracken) are too far back being on 56 points.

Championship Permutations:

Melanie Bourne and Marie Alberta Luisa have to score eight or more points to put the championship out of reach. (82 Points or more)
Otherwise, Oliver/Simmons have to score eight more points than Bourne/Luisa by any means necessary to win the championship. Duh.
If Oliver/Simmons only score seven more points than Bourne/Luisa, they will be equal on points. The tie break will go to Bourne/Luisa unless the result for Oliver/Simmons was in the Top Five overall, giving them the tiebreak. (That being highest overall single score)

If you go tl;dr yeah I don't blame you. It was something on the brain so I'd figure I would do it.

[RealRacingRoots]

Carson: Double DNF, "Not Good Enough"

Carson Speedworks Owner and Team Principal Henrik Carson is left to lament a Double DNF in Sepang, Malaysia which dealt his team a major blow in their 2019 GT Super Series Championship bids.

Heading into the penultimate round of the championship, the team's lead pair of Joey Alliot and Jacques Malenfant were sitting fourth in the World Driver's Championship, albeit more than a race victory's worth of points behind leaders Chris Winter and Morgan Le Fay. Early on during the race, they were projected to have the highest scoring result of all those still mathematically in the championship with a second place finish on the cards after they were the only ones able to keep up with the pace being set by the MacMillan Ford of Rhys Davies and Tomo Kazama.

The projected four point swing in the championship would have put the lead Factory Chevrolet pairing twelve points out heading into Suzuka. But only twenty minutes into the race, Alliot was forced to park his Corvette exiting Turn 9 with a suspension failure ending his, and Malenfant's, championship bid. The team also suffered a major blow for their bid for Third in the Manufacture's Trophy when Li Qi spun out of the race at two-thirds distance with a suspected brake failure, which moved them behind both Ferrari and Ford in the points table.

"All I ever ask for out of my team is to be in with a chance for success come the end of the year," Henrik Carson says in a discussion at Suzuka, "but having that be taken away like that in Sepang, it's just not good enough."

"We have to be better, because I know we can take on Ferrari and Ford and beat them."

Chevrolet currently stands fifth in the Manufacture's Trophy points, five points behind Ferrari in third and two points behind fourth place Ford.

Karjala, Chang replace Paul Ricard, Sepang on 2020 GTSS Calendar

The 2020 GT Super Series calendar got announced the Wednesday before the season finale at Suzuka, and it sees two events that have been on the calendar since the first season being dropped from the calendar.

As a part of the yearly "State of The Series" address that happens yearly at the GTSS season finale, the calendar for the upcoming season was one of the earliest points hit by Series Commissioner Terrance Carter. It features two big changes as Paul Ricard and Sepang, two locations that have been with the series since 2016, will no longer be featuring on the calendar. In their place, the series will go to the Karjala Raceway and the Chang International Circuit, both for the first time.

The series's arrival in Finland for 2020 also sees the return of the Karjala Grand Prix name after it was last seen in 1992 as a part of the truncated final season of the World Sportscar Championship. The event started as the biggest racing event in Scandinavia in the late 60s, before slowly evolving into a major endurance event after the circuit was never able to secure a F1 race. It is the final part of the circuit's revitalization project, which saw the circuit bring back international racing last year after the circuit went through a track resurfacing and safety improvements throughout 2016 and 2017. The 2020 edition will be the 25th running of the Karjala Grand Prix. Karjala will be taking Paul Ricard's spot on the calendar, after a disagreement between the FFSA and the circuit could not be resolved.

Taking the place of Sepang on the 2020 Calendar is the Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand. The circuit has become a major hub for racing in the region, hosting the Pacific Endurance Series since the circuit's opening in 2014, and both World Superbike and Moto GP hosting championship rounds there in the following years. The circuit was given the race slot for 2020 after the Sepang Circuit chose not to take up the option on their contract with the series. The Sepang circuit hosted the first ever round of the championship back in 2016, before being moved to the late slot it has had with the series the year after.

The rest of the calendar remains largely unchanged, with the season starting in Interlagos, Brazil in early March.

Event #: Location - Dates of Race Meeting

Test 1: Bahrain Internatioal Circuit - February 15-16

Race 1: Autódromo José Carlos Pace - March 6-8
Race 2: Yas Supercar Festival, Yas Marina Circuit - March 20-22
Race 3: RAC Tourist Trophy, Silverstone Circuit - April 10-12
Race 4: 25e Karjala Grand Prix, Karjala Raceway - May 1-3
Race 5: Autodromo Nazionale Monza - May 15-17
Race 6: Indianapolis Motor Speedway - June 12-14
Race 7: Molson GT Gatineau, Road Gatineau - June 26-28
Race 8: Baku Grand Prix, Baku City Circuit - July 17-19
Race 9: Nurburgring GP-Strecke - August 14-16
Race 10: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps - September 11-13
Race 11: Zhuhai International Circuit - October 9-11
Race 12: Chang International Circuit - October 23-25
Race 13: Suzuka Circuit - November 6-8

[RealRacingRoots]

Round of Japan - Pre-Qualifying results

Weather: Light Cloud and Dry



The Top 16 partake in the rest of the weekend.

[RealRacingRoots]

Round of Japan - Practice 1 Results

Weather: Light Cloud and Dry



Round of Japan - Practice 2 Results

Weather: Clear and Dry, Cold



Results and the Report for Qualifying can be found at RejectSport. The weather was clear, cold and dry.

[RealRacingRoots]

The full race report and results from the Round of Japan can be found at RejectSport.

Weather: Clear and Dry

Fastest Lap – Car 40 (MacMillan Ford – R.Davies/Kazama) – 1:58.256

Car 05 (Aoi Lamborghini - Scott/Tokugawa) has been assessed a 15 Second Penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Car 4 (Boutsen Ginion Chevrolet - Diaz/Shidehara)

Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race – Fabian Rei and Ryota Wong: The swansong for the Factory Listers couldn’t have gone better.

Reject of The Race – Melanie Bourne and Marie Alberta Luisa: They did everything in their power to throw away the championship, but somehow still walked away with it.

Chris Winter and Morgan Le Fay are World Driver's Champions.
Racing Team Solvalou are Team's Champions.
Aston Martin are Manufacture's Trophy Champions.
Melanie Bourne and Marie Alberta Luisa are Independent's Trophy Champions.

Next up is some cleanup before 2020. Yes, I intend to keep going.

[RealRacingRoots]

Chris Winter - Back to Back Champion

Chris Winter finished off the 2019 GT Super Series season as back-to-back World Driver's Champion.

After becoming world champion with Einar Ármannsson in 2018 with a race in hand over their main rivals from BMS Scuderia Italia, his title defense would come down to the wire with Ravenwest Motorsports forcing the issue on the American and new co-driver for 2019 Morgan Le Fay. Nathan McKane and Andrej Kremnicky forced the Racing Team Solvalou pairing to finish in the top two in Suzuka after Kremnicky inherited the lead when Rhys Davies retired with a gearbox failure. It took a strong effort from both to overcome initial obstacles in the race, which included Winter spinning at turn one which undid all initial progress.

"We've made a bit of a bad habit of putting ourselves in holes early this year," Winter admitted in the post-race press conference, "but Morgan (Le Fay) and the team found a way to dig ourselves out of it. We just couldn't put together a clean 120 minute race at times, and that left the opportunity knocking."

Winter would rally back into the top ten after his early spin, but handed over to Morgan Le Fay for the final two thirds of the race, which saw her climb into contention for the win in the final stint, before eventually making the overtake for the win at the Hitachi Chicane on the last lap of the race. Even though she and Winter only needed to finish second to guarantee the championship no matter what, the exclamation point the victory provided to end the season on a high.

"She's been magic stepping up to the lead car, the title defense wouldn't be possible without her and the team."

The now two-time champion dedicated the result to the entire Solvalou team, including Team Principal Marco Gilbert who was instrumental in getting the team's first championships in 2018, after returning to international racing in 2015. Racing Team Solvalou were also crowned Team's Champions for 2019.

Pereria: Suzuka Podium, "Felt like a win"

Gerald Pereria's tenure of running the Factory Lister operation in the GT Super Series ended on a high at the Round of Japan.

In the midst of Lister's weakest campaign in the series, having been a part of the GTSS since it's inception, the British automaker announced that they were withdrawing their Factory rights within the series. GP Racing, known in the series as the Gerald Pereia-Pan Asia Alliance, had the factory rights since the series's inception in 2016 and enjoyed a strong partnership with the constructor in running their Jaguar-powered Storm GTs, which included finishing second place in the championship in 2017, and fourth in 2018. The results dried up this season, as the aging Storm performance peaked in previous seasons. Gerald Pereia, GP Racing Owner and Team Principal, watched as his team only get two podium results in 2019, both from his ace pairing of Fabian Rei and Ryota Wong; but that second one will be one he'll remember for a long time.

"The final stint from Fabian (Rei) to put himself onto the podium was amazing to watch from the pit wall," Pereia said after the race, "it was like he turned back the clock to what was possible a few years ago."

Rei took over driving duties from Ryota Wong to close out the race, and was inserted into a four way battle for second overall which featured the champion-elect Morgan Le Fay, former F1 Champion James James Davies, and Carson Speedworks driver Li Qi. In the skirmish, the South Korean would take advantage of the quartet struggling to pass the Globex Scorpio Corvette for position and jumped from fifth to third, after Qi and Davies were forced off line in the s-bends and lost momentum. Rei would then keep up with Le Fay, keeping the pressure on which left the championship in the balance. But in the final minutes, Rei's pace started to dip as Le Fay mounted her charge on the leading Ravenwest Aston Martin, which has been the team's story for 2019.

"We just weren't able to keep up this year, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. But being able to be on the third step of the podium, that felt like a victory for us."

With one year remaining in the Lister's eligibility in the series, it leaves Pereia with options if his operation is to continue into 2020. But with the potential for the Storm's performance to continue to drop, it leaves the former Prost GP Series driver if they want to continue with the cars he's been faithful to.

"We've known for a while this was coming. There are multiple options if I want to continue on with or without the Listers. We'll see."