The second time they quote is actually his Prosport, but he has had that car since it was new back in 1992 and has developed it extensively and it is credit to him that he has done that. He has put a lot of work into it and it has a more powerful engine, the chassis has been lightened and stiffened and it is fast. However, that is irrelevant compared to the car that Ian and I have in British GT because it isn’t running to the specification that we agreed we have to run to, to be in GTC. So what is the point of making that argument?
Crash.net Radio:
The big question now is where do you go from here because as it stands you have a car that has been moved into GT2 where it won’t be competitive and you’ve got a car that you’ve invested a lot into that could well become worthless – so where do you go?
Simon Scuffham:
That’s a good question and to be perfectly honest with you, I can’t answer it at the moment. If we are going to be thrown out of GTC, which is effectively what is happening, then it is worthless as there is nowhere for it to run. All the work we have put into the car, on top of what we paid to buy it in the first place, has gone out of the window which is effectively my racing for this season cancelled and probably for next year too as I’m not a rich man by any stretch of the imagination – unless I can do something with this.
SRO has made this decision and as far I’m aware, they aren’t in a position to make it. The BRSCC make the rules and SRO aren’t a licensed racing club, they are a promoter so how can they turn round and say they are changing the regulations? I just don’t know where to go.
Crash.net Radio:
So now I guess you’d like detailed discussions with SRO to try and solve this problem as you’re now forced to sit out Pau which is probably the biggest race for the GTC cars this season – and you’re going to want some answers pretty quickly.
Simon Scuffham:
It’s probably the first and last time we would get a chance to run at Pau and had already committed costs to getting out to France. To put it bluntly, I have fuel and tyres that I have already paid for, I have a ferry that has just been cancelled and I had hotels booked. So apart from the fact it has cost me money, SRO are refusing to take our entry and, I don’t know with or without his agreement, have refunded Ian’s on the same basis that he isn’t allowed to run in it. Is that the way to run a championship?
Crash.net Radio:
If things stay as they are, is there anyway that the Prosport could be competitive in the GT2 class?
Simon Scuffham:
This is another problem. If you follow the rules for GT2, then the Prosport doesn’t fit, ignoring the homologation issues because in GT2 it clearly states that it has to be an
FIA homologated GT2 car which the Prosport isn’t and cannot be under any circumstances as it hasn’t been made for the last seven years. From a technical point of view, we are 250 kilos underweight and I don’t know how safe it is to add 250 kilos to a car that wasn’t built to take it but I’d suggest that the words ‘not very’ could be correct. At the end of the day, it is a Granada engine, which you can do work to as Michael Christopher has shown, but there is a limit as to what you can get from an engine that was designed in the mid-70s so you are asking a lot.
