Major Changes Announced in Series Shake Up
At the Mount Panorama Circuit Today, ItzRacing announced a number of major changes in what is rebranding of the Australian Track Stars Touring Car Series effective from the beginning of 2015.
As of next year the series will be known as the CORE Australian V8Supercar Championship. With this change of names brings a new affiliation with the CORE (Competitive Online Racing Evolved) Organisation. Of course as the name suggests, the series will see a new set of regulations introduced, with all cars being Production based RWD cars with a V8 Engine. Ford, GM, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus have all joined up to the series bringing the series to 5 Manufacturers.
Along with the change in car regulations, comes a change in race formats for next year which will see an increased emphasis fuel and tyre strategies in some races. Races using street circuits will run under a Super Street Format, seeing the introduction of a pair of longer races. The Super Sprint Formats will be run on the permanent circuits, utilising the trio of shorter races which were popular among competitors in this years Track Stars Touring Car Championship. It is also likely that an Enduro Cup will take place within the series, with the High Speed Ring 500, Bathurst 1000 and Monaco the likely hosts for these events if the Enduro Cup takes place.
"After speaking with a number of competitors and also with the managment of CORE it was determined that these changes were very much wanted and needed to continue the growth of an Australian based, Online Touring Car Series on Gran Turismo." Said Series Chairman ItzRacing. "We hope all these changes will bring extra enthusiasm to the series along with a few new faces. The race formats will give each round a unique dimension and the new car regulations should be a new challenge for every single driver. We are also pleased to announce the affiliation with CORE. They are a very professional organsition and will definitely help strengthen the series."
Final Specifications for each car are yet to be confirmed and will be announced at a later date, as soon as testing is complete. The circuits for the 2015 series have all been settled on, with an further announcement regarding a 2015 Calendar to come following the confirmation of various dates.
2014 Changes
Cars
RWD V8 Production based cars with additional aerodynamic modifiactions
Damage Now introduced.
Races
3 Different Types of Race Formats, Super Sprint, Super Street and Enduro
Super Sprint
Consists of 3 x 50 km races on Permanent Circuits
Super Street
Consists of 2 x 125-250 km race on Street Circuits
Greater Emphasis places on Tyre and Fuel Strategy
Enduro (TBD)
Long distance events requiring a co driver
Events are likely to be High Speed Ring 500, Bathurst 1000 and Monaco 600
Each driver required to complete half of the racing distance with races taking place in 2 different rooms following the CORE WEC format.