FIA GT1 World Championship promoter Stephane Ratel has expressed his disappointment at not gaining a berth on the Gold Coast Street Race card.

Speaking on Tuesday night’s edition of the C31 Melbourne television show “In Pit Lane” Mr Ratel said that Australia had always been an important part in his plans for the World Championship and he was disappointed that his proposal to be a part of the Gold Coast event had been refused.

” We had a big ambition to launch the Championship on all five continents.” he said.

“I visited Australia twice in the last couple of years… I had a lot of hopes that something would come together and the last one was to join Surfers Paradise, but as you know… they finally decided to do V8’s (V8 Supercars) only.”

Mr Ratel believes that the new World Championship would have been a considerable asset to the event bringing International glamour, media attention and corporate support to the race.

“I personally think that we are an excellent fit for any big event in Australia.” he said.

“I mean V8s are about very famous drivers, in Australia and it’s also two brands only, Ford and Holden.”

“We have already six brands and our ambition is to get many more and important manufacturers… the more brands you have, the more advertising, they are entertaining their clients and networking. I think it would be very good for an event in Australia and I’m quite confident that one day common sense will prevail and we’ll be invited to come.”

Mr Ratel said that despite being a World Championship he would have no problem sharing the billing with the V8 Supercars.

He said that he understood the popularity of the class here in Australia and there wouldn’t be any problems.

“With the event taking place in Australia there would be no concerns for TV times or anything like that, it wouldn’t really affect us if we were on at 2.00 p.m., 6.00 p.m. or 10 in the morning.”

The new Championship which was launched in Paris last Wednesday pits premium sportscar brands like Aston Martin, Corvette, Nissan, Ford and Lamborghini against each other in two one hour races over 10 rounds.

The opening round of the Championship will be in Abu Dhabi next month.

The interview highlights Tuesday night on In Pit Lane on C31 Melbourne live at 9.30 P.M