2008 ENDURANCE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

 Top event at 20th IMCA Worlds with 16 FIA GT 2008 cars   (8 GT1 & 8 GT2)

HERENTALS (B), JULY 23-24, 2008

March 31, 2007 - The 2nd ENDURANCE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP may be considered as the top event of the 2008 model car racing season. It will be contested with 16 FIA GT cars, being 1/24th scale models of the race cars having been seen at the 2008 FIA GT Series.  There will be three racers per car and at the start we'll find 8 GT1 cars, and 8 GT2 cars.
WHY 2008 FIA GT CARS? Initially it was planned to drive 2007 FIA GT cars. But then came round #2 of the EEC 2008. There was a lot of not justified commotion around the driveability of the track, resulting in the last minute withdrawal of no less than 5 cars. That withdrawal cost IMCA € 6,500 sponsoring money, since our conditional contract with 24 FIA GT cars at the start of all three EEC 2008 rounds was no longer respected. Main sponsors as AMC, GMAC, Techniplast,  ALRO and Total had even not one single car on the grid. The loss of € 6,500 was a serious blow for IMCA's finances. This money was needed to cover the high costs for the 20th IMCA Worlds. So we were enforced to find a new sponsoring deal, exclusively concerning the Enduro Worlds with FIA GT cars. The only solution to recuperate the largest part of the lost € 6,500 was a negotiation with new sponsors of 2008 FIA GT cars.
WHY 16 CARS INSTEAD OF 24? The decision to save the 20th IMCA Worlds with new sponsoring money, four months before the start, made it impossible to assemble 24 new cars in such short period. By opting for 8 GT1 and 8 GT2 cars, version 2008, we can at least ensure that the GT2 racers will have not to invest in new bodies, since IMCA will let assemble 8 RTR GT2 cars for those 24 racers. In GT1 one complete RTR car (for Tyler/Radisich/Hood) will be financed by IMCA, and two other teams (Racing for Slovakia and A.C.R. Racing) will receive a RTR 2008 GT1 body.
WHY 3 RACERS PER CAR INSTEAD OF 2?  Three racers per car allows more homoge-neous teams. Now Bad Boys, RfH, etc. are no longer split. With 3 racers per car we  one of ythem can always fuction as marshall.
WHY NO PRESIDENT'S CUP WITH GALLARDOS? On racing 2008 FIA GT cars, one week earlier than the 1/1 Spa 24 hours, we can get no info if there will be in 2008 trios of Gallardos and JMB Ferraris as last year. So it's impossible to improvise any potential 1/24th President's Cup.
QUALIFICATIONS go over three heats of 8 x 3 minutes. Best qualifier per group (GT1 and GT2) can choose as first the lane on which he or she wants to start.
3 SECTIONS OF 8 x 30 MINUTES - The two races will go over three sections of 8 x 30 minutes, with per group (GT1 & GT2) a first day section, a night section, and a second day section.
PRO & SEMI PRO WORLD CHAMPIONS - Pros (EXPERTS & KIDS with more than 50 IOC points) race in GT1, Semi-pros (AMATEURS & KIDS with less than 50 IOC points) race in GT2. That makes that at the end of the event we'll crown six new world champions: 3 among the pros and 3 among the semi-pros.
The 2nd Endurance Worlds will be contested on the wooden Steve HOUR RACES Ogilvie MTT 8-laner as used already last year. Location is Nieuwstraat 31 at B-2200 Herentals. A good hotel is Hotel "Aldhem", Jagersdreef 1, B-2200 Grobbendonk (the former Moneytron Hotel I let be constructed in my F1 period).  At walking distance of he race location there are two other hotels. Racers have to do the reservations themselves. More....

The Endurance World Championship was organised for the first time at the 1988 IMCA Worlds in Chicago. It was a close struggle among Franco Gianotti/Corinna Gianotti and Dan Debella/JPVR. Eventually we finished behind the Italians. The Endurance Worlds were no more organised. So the 2008 Endurance World Championship is only the second edition in history.
POWER RESTRICTORS - The supremacy of the Saleens S7R and Maseratis MC12, observed in the past, will be tempered by the obligation that those cars must be driven with a minus 0.6 Volt power restrictor.
 
[JPVR]