Following the engine reliability issues experienced by a number of competitors at Round 1 of the 2017 Sasol GTC Championship at Killarney Raceway, Cape Town, the GTC management team would like to issue the following statement.
After consultation with all major stakeholders, the following three changes have been implemented for Round 2 of the championship at Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit on April 22, 2017:
- A new rev-limit of 7,200rpm will be imposed
- The absolute boost pressure has been reduced by 50 millibar from 2150 to 2100 millibar
- The maximum ignition timing will be reduced by 2 degrees
These small changes will considerably reduce the stress on the engines over the course of a race weekend without having a significant impact on performance.
The concept of GTC is to provide “affordable, serious racing” and GTC management remains in discussions with all parties so that it can agree to a long-term solution with two aims:
- Provide race fans with an exciting show which was promised at the inception of the series, and
- Reduce costs to the teams by giving them a reliable engine platform, while continuing to provide a commercially attractive marketing platform for manufacturers.
At this stage, all options are still being considered, from upgrading the existing engines all the way up to an engine platform change.
Since its inception in 2016, GTC has provided some great racing and proven to be popular with teams, fans and manufacturers. The GTC management team is confident that the changes for Kyalami will result in the necessary improvement in reliability and will provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to agree on the optimum long-term solution.
Further updates will be provided in due course.
