28-Car Entry for SRO’s GT Anniversary Races at Spa

SRO Motorsports Group has revealed a 28-car entry list for this weekend’s TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa historic support races that will celebrate 30 years of GT racing.

The field, arranged by historic racing promoter Peter Auto, involves a mixture of GT cars that were active from 1999 to 2013, including several 24 Hours of Spa winners.

The races will commemorate three decades since SRO founder and CEO Stephane Ratel, who is taking part as a driver, organized his first international GT event before launching the BPR Global Series in 1994 with Juergen Barth and Peter Auto’s Patrick Peter.

Ratel is due to get behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Murcielago R-SV 2010, competing in the GT1 category. There will also be classes for GT2 and GT3 machinery.

A notable part of the entry is the trio of Maserati MC12 GT1s, of the car type that won the 24 Hours of Spa three times in the 2000s.

Nick Hommerson and Joe Macari will compete as solo drivers, while Ivan Vercoutere and Alex Mueller will share the other model.

A quartet of Aston Martin DBR9s and a pair of Chrysler-Viper GTS-Rs, the latter representing a two-time Spa winner in the event’s earliest GT racing years, contribute to the GT1 grid.

There is also a second Lamborghini Murcielago driven by Tomas Enge and Stefan Rosina, in addition to the one piloted by Ratel.

Stephane Ortelli, who won the 2003 Spa enduro in a Porsche, will drive an Audi R8 LMS ultra in the 30th GT Anniversary.

That is the most recent car in the field and will race in the GT3 division alongside a V12-powered Aston Martin Vantage, a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Chevrolet Corvette C6 Z06R, a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and another R8 ultra driven by James Sofronas.

The GT2 entry mainly features Porsches, including a Porsche 996 GT3-RS of the type that took a surprise victory in a heavy rain-affected 24-hour race 19 years ago.

There is also a Ferrari F430 GTC Evo that will be driven by Belgian racer Guy Fawe, who is going up against eight Porsche entries.

In addition to the 30th GT Anniversary races, a fleet of 10 historic GT cars will participate in the annual town-to-track parade on Wednesday.

The group includes a Venturi 400 Trophy, the car that launched Ratel’s GT racing venture, as well as several different Lamborghini models and a Ford GT1.

SRO initially planned to hold a historic race in support of last year’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season-opener at Monza, with the focus on celebrating 15 years of the GT3 formula.

However, that proposed race was canceled, and the idea for a classic GT spectacle was deferred to the 30th-anniversary celebration this year.

Each GT Anniversary race will last 60 minutes. The first takes place at 5:05 p.m. CEST (11:05 ET) on Friday, while the second gets underway at 2 p.m. (8 a.m. ET) on Saturday, before the 24 Hours of Spa kicks off later in the afternoon.

Both races will be broadcast live on the GT World YouTube channel.