Don't dumb down the Spa 24 Hours
The Spa 24 Hours - taking place this weekend - is a fiercely competitive event in its current guise, but rule tweaks for 2016 risk moving it away from a pure endurance competition
It is difficult to argue with the contention - put forward by the organisers and many more - that the Blancpain GT Series is the most competitive championship in the world right now. And we're not just talking sportscars.
Yet that competitiveness has been blunted by new sporting rules, particularly pertinent to this weekend's Spa 24 Hours, that are dumbing down the Endurance Cup element of the BGTS.
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Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.
Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.
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