Five or six new GT2 cars could be ready by late 2019, says Ratel

[Mighty AU]

There could be as many as five or six new GT2 supercars ready to race by the second half of next year, according to class instigator Stephane Ratel.
Ratel, who announced plans for the new class that is aimed at amateur drivers last week, revealed that there was already significant interest from manufacturers.
"If we're starting with three [manufacturers] it would really be a success, but I think we could have five or six," Ratel told Autosport.
"We went around the manufacturers and showed our ideas, and we had quite an expression of interest from a number of them.
"Three manufacturers is definitely realistic, but there could be more."
Ratel would not be drawn on which marques had shown interest in GT2, saying it was up to them to announce their plans.
The aim is to hold a pilot race for the new class late next summer or in the autumn ahead of a full introduction of GT2 in 2020.
"We would like to have a launch event next year before the Spa 24 Hours or maybe we could incorporate them in one of our GT Sports Club races later in the season," said Ratel.
"Maybe the manufacturers will not have their cars in production, but they will have some test cars available."
The GT2 division, which revives a much-used name most recently used by the World Endurance Championship class now known as GTE, has been conceived as a complement to GT3.
GT2 and GT3 machinery will race together in Stephane Ratel Organisation's sprint championships, including the short-format Blancpain GT Series, the British GT Championship and the Pirelli World Challenge.

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While the SRO GT2 proposal is interesting, I’m not convinced that it’s absolutely necessary? The idea behind the new category is that modern GT3 cars have become too difficult for GT3 Am drivers to race in, so they want to get rid of GT3 Am altogether and just put the amateurs in these easier to drive GT2 cars, and have GT3 Pro just be GT3. Why not just cool down the development of the GT3 formula a bit?

Also, what’s going to happen to the GT3 cars after they’re retired? Iirc retired GT3 Pro cars can be sold to GT3 Am teams (or maybe I’m confusing that with LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am), but that wouldn’t happen anymore if the amateurs are racing in cars built to completely different regulations. Also I fear that the implementation of GT2 may overshadow GT4, and make the latter become irrelevant.