2024.08.04

Explanations presented for new Regulation Revisions such as the Qualifying Format from Round 5 Suzuka

　On the morning of August 4th, GTA, the promoter of SUPER GT, issued a bulletin concerning revisions to the Official Qualifying format. These revisions will be adopted beginning from the coming Round 5 at Suzuka, and an explanation session for the press was also held before the GTA Regular Press Conference at Round 4 held at Fuji Speedway. GTA Chairman Masaaki Bandoh and Race Division General Manager Taku Sawame were in attendance to give presentations for the press on the reasons for the revisions and further explanations.

*For information about the contents of the regulation revisions, please refer to the pages below.

【2024Regulation Revision】 From Round 5 the Qualifying Format is Revised: The tires now come in two sets that can be combined freely. For GT300 Q1 the divided groups and the Special Place Switching Rule are eliminated.

 

 

 

 

　

　From Round 1 to Round 3 of this season, a new qualifying format was adopted and, according to General Manager Sawame, based on the actual qualifying results and the opinions heard from the entrant teams and fans, a comprehensive decision was made to make these new changes in the format. There are two main points to the changes made, those resulting from complaints about “the unfairness of the rules” and those concerned with the opinion that the rules were “difficult to understand,” and there were an especially large number of complaints coming from the fans about the difficulty of understanding the rules. As a result, the new rules are aimed at “removing the unfair aspects” and “solving the aspects that are difficult to understand.”

　It was noted that no changes were made in the Combined Time Format. Much discussion was centered on this point, but it was finally decided to continue use of this format for the reason that in a professional sporting event like SUPER GT it is contrary to the spirit of sportsmanship to change to a directly opposite rule in the middle of a season and that the spirit of sportsmanship itself should not be compromised by making such changes. Therefore, a flexible approach was adopted by which weaknesses in the existing rules could by revised to a degree.

　The rule under which only one set (four tires) can be used in the Qualifying has been eliminated, and under the new format two sets can be used. As a result, the practice of choosing by lottery from the Marking Tires after the finish of the Qualifying that was adopted with the knock-out format up until last season has been revived. Furthermore, another major change eliminates the practice of dividing the GT300 class Q1 entrants into two groups to run separately has been eliminated, and instead a practice of all 27 cars running together in Q1 is adopted. For this reason, the former Q1 session running time of 10 minutes is now increased to 20 minutes.
　Also, because different tires can now be used in Q1 and Q2, the setting of a Time Standard for clearing the Qualifying (107% of the average of the top three times) has been reinstated.
　In addition, to address the problem of the format being hard to understand, the Special Place Switching Rule for the GT300 class has been eliminated. This change is aimed to put priority making the format easier to understand.

 

　On a further note, Chairman Bandoh said that he thought that with regard to the issue of difficulty in understanding the format, that problem has been addressed to a degree. He went on to say that he hoped everyone could compete with a clear understanding of the rules. Also, he said that the revisions had been made with the purpose of making the format easier to understand for viewers as well.

 

 

 

 

　
　Furthermore, in addition to the things stated above, revisions had been made and announced regarding Article 21 of the SUPER GT Sporting Regulation.
　This season, the number of tire sets that can be used from the Official Practice through to the start of the race, including the FYC and events like the Circuit Safari, was limited to a maximum of four sets of Dry-use tires (in the case of GT300). And with regard to this, it was added that “From Round 1 onwards, and in the case of a team whose respective tire manufacturer supplier has not won a race with any team, in the previous season, the tire manufacturer is allowed to bring in one extra dry tire set per car,” but this condition has now been eliminated.
　Instead, as a measure for the purpose of supporting tire development, tire manufacturer suppliers that have not won a race with any team from Round 1 to Round 3 of this season will be allowed to supply an additional two sets of dry-use tires to the number of sets specified by each Round for use from the Official Practice through to the start of the race, including promotional events, and this rule will be effective from Round 5 to Round 8 of this season.
 

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