Autosport.com - Winder up order served on GPM

A petition to wind up the company behind the Grand Prix Masters series will be presented at London's High Court in November.

The action is being taken by GPM's chassis supplier Delta Special Projects. It will be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice on 28 November this year.

No GPM races have taken place since the series' third event at Silverstone in August 2006, and plans for a full season this year did not come to fruition.

Is this the final nail in the coffin for the GP Masters?

Well it was a bit of a non-starter anyway, really. Nice to see some familiar names back on the track, but it wasn't anything special as a series - as a return to the "good old days" of F1, it failed utterly. Even Murray Walker wasn't like he used to be!

It always seemed like a non-started but I thought the concept was great. Could've caught on, but I think they'd have been better getting Dallara or Lola to do the engineering because the car, particularly the gearbox, seemed weak. There were some good drivers involved and it could've gone the distance if Bernie had been in charge...Shame but no surprise really.

I saw only the first ever race, because it was confined to satellite TV thereafter. Had it stayed on terrestrial TV, I'm sure more people would have taken interest!

Same is true of a lot of things. A1GP would probably be more popular here in Britain if it was on terrestrial TV rather than Sky Sports, but all that the non-Sky Sports viewers get is a highlights programme on Channel 5 at silly o'clock!

Which is not great if you're neither nocturnal, able to get ch. 5 or don't have the time to watch it later!

<roflmao>

Well there's no point in the GPM existing if there are no races!

when they blew 36 engines at Silverstone - that really hurt them, and confidence in the concept. Actually the generall consensus at Silverstone was that it was a bit boring. not enough racing went on, and the weather was rubbish too. IT looked like a good idea, but needed more drivers ( 10 cars get lost very quickly on a 3 mile circuit) and less focus on Hospitality.

So a case of too much, too soon you think then, Stig? Best to focus on the actual concept first before you go about fine-tuning it to fit in with TV schedules and the like?

Yes indeed Andy. The fact that they'd spent out on building a 5 star restraunt in the paddock complete with a Katie Meluah and Faithless concert Apres Race and a top french chef to run it - and only 10 cars in the garages says a lot about where the organisation has it's priorities.

The GP masters should be made a support race to Formula 1, that would make it popular no end in my opinion.

It would be extremely enjoyable for people attending F1 weekends, along with GP2 as well it would add more depth to the weekend programme.

Quite. They could have at least got a full grid together - as A1GP did, with 25 cars turning up for the first race - before they started on the frivolities. Admittedly A1GP managed to get all that done as well, but then maybe the "World Cup of Motorsport" is a bit more marketable than what most people would perceive as "Watch a Load of Boring Old Farts You Were Never Interested in Watching in the First Place"

What?!

And that was just Andrea de Cesaris.... <yikes>

<roflmao>

They blew up 36 Engines in one weekend. Including 4 in the 2 seater car.

Were they cast-off Mercedes V10s?

No, they were old Champ-Car Engines. as are the chassis...

Wasn't it a bad batch of components?

To be honest, that just sounds like a batch of dodgy components. The engines, IIRC were merely a retuned and enlarged N/A version of the old Ford Cosworth CART lump - and they weren't exactly short on relibility. Given that they were making about 150 less horses means they ought to have been more reliable. I supect that the extra capacity might have upset the things though.

They'd tried to make them more powerfull by tinkering - something didn't like that.

I said from the beginning that GPM wouldn't last.

Me too. If it had been run as a support to the F1 series it might have made it though

bernie would never have gone for it.

a support series where drivers said what they thought and had personalties?

that would have drawn a few too many uncomfortable comparisions with todays f1 grid.

i mean if the likes of warwick and patrese and emmo and arnoux where floating about how many journalists would go to the bmw press conference looking for an interesting quote? <think>

Given that 'interesting' quotes are virtually against team policy, and have been for about a decade in F1 unless you're Eddie Irvine, Jacques Villeneuve or Mark Webber (on a rare occasion)... I'd say they never bother these days anyway....

No way. With Nigel Mansell and Fernando Alonso racing on the same weekend, the concentration of whining would probably destroy the paddock.