Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel racing, touring car racing and stock car racing. Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over particularly long distances or large amounts of time, resulting in a larger emphasis on the reliability and efficiency of the car and its drivers as opposed to outright car performance or driver skills. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an example of one of the best known sports car racing series.
Uwe Alzen is a German racing driver specialised in touring car racing and sports car racing.
The Lister Storm was a homologated GT racing car manufactured by British low volume automobile manufacturer Lister Cars with production beginning in 1993. The Storm used the largest V12 engine fitted to a production road car since World War II, a 7.0 L Jaguar unit based on the one used in the Jaguar XJR-9 that competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Due to the high price of the vehicle at £220,000, only four examples were produced before production of the road-going Storm ceased. Only three Storms survive today, although the company continues to maintain racing models. The Storm was claimed to be the fastest four-seat grand tourer during the 1990s and early 2000s.
The 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 66th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 6 and 7 June 1998.
The 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 64th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 15 and 16 June 1996. It was won by a Tom Walkinshaw-Porsche prototype run by Joest Racing with drivers Davy Jones, Manuel Reuter and Le Mans rookie Alexander Wurz completing 354 laps. While not being the fastest car on track, it hit the front in the first hour and aside from several pit-stop overlaps, was never headed as other teams hit mechanical troubles during the race. This was Reuter's second Le Mans victory, and the first for Jones and Wurz, who, at 22 years old, became the youngest ever Le Mans overall winner.
The Porsche 911 GT2 is a high-performance, track-focused sports car built by the German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 1993 to 2009, and then since 2010 as the GT2 RS. It is based on the 911 Turbo, and uses a similar twin-turbocharged engine, but features numerous upgrades, including engine enhancements, larger brakes, and stiffer suspension calibration. The GT2 is significantly lighter than the Turbo due to its use of rear-wheel-drive instead of all-wheel-drive system and the reduction or removal of interior components. As a result, the GT2 is the most expensive and fastest model among the 911 lineup.
Jörg Bergmeister is a former racing driver from Germany and an ambassador of Porsche.
Richard Westbrook is a British professional racing driver noted for his success in racing Porsche and International sports cars. As a junior, he attended St Joseph's College, Ipswich. He has won both the Porsche Supercup international championship and the Porsche Carrera Cup in his native Britain (2004). At the end of the 2007 season, Richard signed a factory contract deal with the German marque Porsche, and the British ace proceeded to take on the world's best on the other side of the Atlantic. The next year (2009), Westbrook won the highly coveted FIA GT2 Championship, taking four victories in the process, establishing himself firmly on the World motor sport stage and in the upper echelons of elite sports car drivers.
The McLaren F1 GTR is the racing variant of the McLaren F1 sports car first produced in 1995 for grand touring style racing, such as the BPR Global GT Series, FIA GT Championship, JGTC, and British GT Championship. It was powered by the naturally aspirated BMW S70/2 V12 engine. It is most famous for its overall victory at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans where it won against faster purpose-built prototypes in very wet conditions. The F1 GTR raced internationally until 2005 when the final race chassis was retired.
Terry Borcheller is an American professional racing driver who races in the Grand American Road Racing Association Rolex Sports Car Series and American Le Mans Series.
Timothy Philip Sugden is a British racing driver. He is both driver and manager for his own racing team, Tim Sugden Motorsport.
Champion Racing was a sports car racing team based in Pompano Beach, Florida, USA. Founded in 1994 by Dave Maraj, a former rally driver from Trinidad, as the motorsport wing of the Champion Motors car dealership, the team has campaigned various Porsches and Audis in North American road racing series. Champion Racing's extensive record includes a win at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2005, and 5 straight American Le Mans Series LMP1 championships, 2 as a private team and 3 as a factory team under the name Audi Sport North America.
Lucas Luhr is a German BMW factory racing driver, currently competing for BMW and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the GTLM category of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship.
Patrice Goueslard is a French racing driver. He competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans each year from 1999 until 2010, having initially made his debut at the event in 1994. His best finish in the event came in 2006, when he and Larbre Compétition drivers Luc Alphand and Jérôme Policand took seventh overall, and third in the GT1 category. In addition to this, he has won the French GT Championship and the GT1 category of the Le Mans Series on three occasions each, as well as the Gentleman Trophy category of the Blancpain Endurance Series on one occasion.
The 1999 Rolex 24 at Daytona was a 24-hour endurance sports car race held on January 30–31, 1999 at the Daytona International Speedway road course. The race served as the opening round of the 1999 United States Road Racing Championship. It was the second and final year that the race was sanctioned by the SCCA before being taken over by Grand-Am.
Group GT1, also known simply as GT1, was a set of regulations maintained formerly by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), for Grand Tourer racing. The category was first created in 1993, as the top class of the BPR Global GT Series, and was included in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It fell under FIA regulation from 1997, after the BPR series came under the control of the FIA, becoming known as the FIA GT Championship. The category was dissolved at the end of 2011. The category may be split into four distinctive eras, from its debut in 1993–1996, 1997–1998, 2000–2009, 2010–2011.
The 1996 Rolex 24 at Daytona was a 24-hour endurance sports car race held on February 3–4, 1996 at the Daytona International Speedway road course. The race served as the opening round of the 1996 IMSA GT Championship.
The 1997 Rolex 24 at Daytona was a 24-hour endurance sports car race held on February 1–2, 1997 at the Daytona International Speedway road course. The race served as the opening round of the 1997 IMSA GT Championship.
The 1973 24 Hours of Daytona was a 24-hour endurance sports car race held on February 3–4, 1973 at the Daytona International Speedway road course. The race served as the opening round of the 1973 World Sportscar Championship.
The Porsche 911 RSR and its predecessor GT3 RSR, GT3 RS and GT3 R were a line of GT racing cars produced by Porsche that are used in motorsport for endurance races. They are based on the currently highest class in GT racing worldwide, the GTE class from ACO. These regulations lead back to the concept of a GT3 class below the then Group GT1 and GT2 from 1998. After the discontinuation of the GT1 class, the planned GT3 class was from 1999 at the ACO as a GT class below the GTS, as well advertised by the FIA from 2000 as N-GT. After the alignment of the GT rules between FIA and ACO in 2005, this class was renamed GT2 class. When the FIA's GT2 European Championship failed and the participants in the GT1 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans dwindled, the ACO renamed the GT2 class GTE in 2011 and divided it into GTE-Pro for professionals and GTE-AM for amateurs. Over the years, Porsche was continuously represented in this class with different series of the 911.
