It’s precisely 20 years because the FIA GT3 Championship heralded a brand new period of sportscar racing. As a packed grid of 44 automobiles lined up on the Silverstone Circuit in 2006, few may have imagined the dimensions of success this class would go on to take pleasure in.
In spite of everything, this was a time when the sportscar racing panorama was extremely fragmented and transitional. The World Endurance Championship was nonetheless six years away from being reborn, GT1 had collapsed below its personal weight, whereas GT2 (which finally grew to become GTE) was too factory-oriented for mass adoption.
As such, Stephane Ratel conceived GT3 as a customer-focused class geared toward making high-level GT racing accessible to personal groups and gentleman drivers. The main focus was on affordability, managed efficiency and giving specialist tuners the liberty to show road-going machines into correct race automobiles.
What Ratel couldn’t have envisioned was how it might grow to be the default platform for modern-day sportscar racing.
Whereas the GT1 platform formally died (a second time) in 2012 and even GTE was phased out after 2023, GT3 grew to become the one class versatile sufficient to switch all of them. As we speak, it underpins numerous collection and occasions starting from the World Endurance Championship and SRO’s personal GT World Problem, to regional collection just like the DTM and British GT.
Maybe much more stunning is how the class developed past its gentleman-driver roots, with factory-backed stars now often sharing the identical automobiles with novice racers.
Ratel says he was all the time assured that GT3 had sturdy foundations, however he even admits to being stunned by how far it has grown.
Stephane Ratel launched GT3 20 years in the past
Picture by: SRO
“It did not come in a single day as a result of it is over 30 years of a deep involvement in GT racing and 20 years in GT3,” he mentioned about GT3’s progress in an interview with Motorsport.com.
“But it surely’s been fixed progress. It has been going higher and higher for a few years.
“It’s 20 years because the very first race at Silverstone, which was in Might 2006, and there have been 44 automobiles firstly.
“And in the same dash format this 12 months, now we have 44-45 automobiles in GT World Dash Cup in Europe. So, it simply began with a growth and it stayed with a growth in SRO collection, after which it unfold everywhere in the world.
“We did some analysis for this 20-year anniversary, and I discovered one of many first interviews I did in 2005 once we offered [the category]. I already had in depth expertise in GT racing, and I believed the basics have been proper, as a result of the automobiles have been spectacular sufficient, quick sufficient, and really price efficient. And on the finish in motorsport, price is a key issue.
“On the time, I mentioned on this interview that I used to be seeing a shiny future for the class. It went over my wildest expectations. Not solely it had a shiny future with SRO, as a result of it grew to become the spine of our racing collection, however it additionally conquered the remainder of the sportscar world, as a result of it first changed each GT1 and GT2 with the FIA, it changed GTE with the ACO and IMSA, and in the end, it even changed touring automobiles with the DTM.
“So, it is a world conqueror. That, after all, I could not have anticipated initially.”
Valentino Rossi introduced new followers to GT racing
Picture by: Valentino Rossi
“Rossi has been vastly essential”
GT3 racing has all the time attracted large names from different disciplines, however the entry of MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi and four-time System 1 champion Max Verstappen has launched the class to a wholly new viewers.
Ratel takes satisfaction from the truth that followers who attended GTWCE occasions simply to observe Rossi have been impressed by what they noticed, and stayed afterwards.
“Valentino Rossi has been vastly essential,” he mentioned. “We noticed a extremely very substantial enhance in spectator attendance. Valentino’s followers got here to the GT race, and liked it and stayed.
“Monza had an enormous growth in spectator attendance when Valentino arrived. Final 12 months, he left us for a season to do primarily WEC, and you possibly can see the attendance that remained the identical. So, the followers that got here initially for Valentino remained for GT racing.”
The same impact was seen on the Nurburgring 24 Hours this month, as Verstappen’s debut led to a document attendance of 352,000 spectators throughout the race weekend.
Ratel beforehand acknowledged {that a} want to make a distinction in a level-playing area is what drew the Dutchman to GT3 racing, regardless of the plain efficiency distinction to F1 automobiles.
Area of interest inside a distinct segment
GT3 automobiles now underpin all main endurance races, together with the 24-hour fixtures at Le Mans, Daytona, Nurburgring and Spa, in addition to different occasions such because the Bathurst 12 Hour.
GT3 automobiles star in occasions at well-known tracks like Spa, Le Mans and the Nurburgring
Picture by: VLN
But regardless of its progress, GT3 racing nonetheless occupies a comparatively area of interest house throughout the wider motorsport panorama. And whereas some occasions such because the Le Mans 24 Hours proceed to draw enormous crowds and mainstream consideration, promoters face a higher problem in sustaining the identical stage of curiosity throughout the complete season.
It’s an issue confronted not solely by the FIA and the ACO with the WEC, however SRO with its personal championships run below the GT World Problem banner.
Ratel is below no illusions about GT3’s place, significantly in comparison with F1, whose reputation has exploded below present proprietor Liberty Media.
Requested how GTWCE may have a broader attraction, Ratel mentioned: “Sure, [it is a niche] however a rising area of interest.
“Whenever you see the mixture of WEC at present with eight main producers, whenever you take a look at the general public attendance at Imola for the primary spherical of the season, if you happen to take a look at the general public attendance that GT World Problem had at Paul Ricard for the primary spherical, or at Manufacturers Hatch, it’s a rising area of interest and a quick rising area of interest.
“In fact, for most of the people, if we are able to examine it to System 1, it’s on a distinct planet. However in motorsports, in pure motorsport, sports activities automotive racing is actually having a really important time.”
Learn Additionally:
We wish your opinion!
What would you wish to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Workforce
