Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

French GT promoter ORECA angered by "unacceptable" FFSA comments

French GT Championship promoter ORECA has reacted to the announcement of a new series focussed on France for 2017

ORECA boss Hugues de Chaunac laid the blame for Stephane Ratel's unveiling of plans for the new GT series at the door of the FFSA, the French sporting federation, and its general co-ordinator, Dominique Roger.

He said that comments from Roger in the wake of the poorly-supported opening round of the French series, which has now accepted LMP3 prototypes, at Nogaro last weekend were "unacceptable" and caused a "chain reaction" leading to Ratel's announcement.

Roger told the south-west region daily newspaper, La Depeche: "We made the mistake of coming to Nogaro with so few cars.

"We must find a new top series: we've anticipated this possibility a bit for the past two years."

De Chaunac, whose ORECA group has run French GTs since 2011, reacted by saying: "These statements, which don't reflect my idea of what the FFSA stands for, are quite simply unacceptable towards the teams and drivers who have shown remarkable support to the GT Tour [the package that French GTs headlines].

"ORECA had the option to stop being the series promoter in 2016, but we decided to continue because of our loyalty and conviction."

ORECA revealed that it had been expecting a field of 12 to 15 cars - up from the nine present at Norgaro - for the next round of the championship, which is set for Ledonon in June following the cancellation of a proposed Moroccan event at Marrakech in May.

The statement from ORECA said it would "now give itself time to think about what decisions are best adapted to the situation".

Ratel, whose SRO organisation ran French GTs in 1998-2010, announced plans on Tuesday night for a new international series with five races in France and one each in Spain and Portugal.

He said he was open to it being adopted by the FFSA as a French national championship.

Details of his series will be unveiled in July.

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article SRO plans French-based international GT series for 2017
Next article Bernd Schneider to contest full Blancpain GT Sprint season

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe