How the Spa 24 Hours became a GT race in 2001

Motorsport photoToday, the Spa 24 Hours stands as the ultimate GT3 spectacle on the sports car calendar. Yet, this remains a relatively modern phenomenon. Following the race's revival in 1964, it spent nearly half a century as a permanent, iconic fixture of the touring car world.

Naturally, the lines between touring cars and GT sports cars blurred on more than one occasion during that era. The Porsche 911 claimed three victories in the 1960s, and a case could certainly be made as to whether the victorious 1981 Mazda RX-7 was a touring car or a GT machine.The same ambiguity surrounds the historic 1991 triumph of the legendary Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 "Godzilla," which completely blew away the factory-backed BMW M3 E30s.

Nevertheless, the event was the touring car race of the year and served as the marquee event for the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) from 1966 to 1988.Even after the championship’s demise, the race retained massive manufacturer appeal during the golden era of Group A—most notably with BMW and its iconic Bastos-sponsored M3 E30 screamers.By the 1990s, however, the race began to suffer a significant loss of prestige.

Following the end of the Group A regulations, an initial attempt was made in 1993 to position the newlyrevived European GT scene as the main attraction.At the time, GT racing was far from professional. The Porsche 911 RSR was the only truly established platform.

Most other projects were privately built entries that spent more time undergoing repairs in the pitlane than turning laps on the circuit. Unsurprisingly, a grid dominated by a single-make Porsche Cup format failed to resonate with the spectators.1990s: First too expensive, then too slowSo the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium (RACB) turned its focus back to touring cars in 1994, banning sportscars entirely from the entry list—a move mirrored by the organisers of the Nurburgring 24 Hours.

The Super Touring category emerged as the logical successor to Group A. While the two-litre