The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout the years has visited other continents including Asia and South America. At the end of 2009, the championship was replaced by the FIA GT1 World Championship, which morphed into the FIA GT Series for 2013.
Marc Lieb is a former German Porsche factory motor-racing driver. He won the FIA GT Championship in 2003 and 2005, and the European Le Mans Series in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2010. He won the 24 Hours Nürburgring four times, one time the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016, in the 2008 12 Hours of Sebring, in the 2003 24 hours of Spa and in the 2007 Petit Le Mans. He is also the 2016 FIA World Endurance Champion.
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 2005 FIA GT Championship season was the 9th season of FIA GT Championship motor racing. It featured a series of races for GT1 Grand Touring and GT2 Series Grand Touring cars, the former more powerful and highly developed and the latter remaining closer to the production models on which they were based. Additionally cars from National Championships and from Single-make Cups were permitted to participate in championship races but could not score points towards the various awards. The championship itself consisted of a GT1 Championship for Drivers, a GT1 Championship for Teams, a GT2 Cup for Drivers and a GT2 Cup for Teams. A Manufacturers Cup was also awarded in both classes. The championship season began on 10 April 2005 and ended on 25 November 2005 after 11 races.
The 1998 FIA GT Championship was the second season of FIA GT Championship, an auto racing series endorsed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO). The races featured grand touring cars conforming to two categories of regulations, GT1 and GT2, and awarded driver and team championships in each category. The season began on 12 April 1998 and ended on 25 October 1998 after ten rounds, visiting Europe, Japan, and the United States.
The 1997 FIA GT Championship was the inaugural season of FIA GT Championship, an auto racing series endorsed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO). The FIA GT Championship replaced the BPR Global GT Series which had been held races and championships from 1994 to 1996 after the series was promoted by the FIA, while Stéphane Ratel took over as promoter and organizer of the new championship, replaced the former BPR Organisation after the departure of partners Jürgen Barth and Patrick Peter. The races featured grand touring cars conforming to two categories of regulations, GT1 and GT2, and awarded driver and team championships in each category. The season began on 13 April 1997 and ended on 26 October 1997 after 11 rounds, visiting Europe, Japan, and the United States.
The FIA GT3 European Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) and regulated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It was a championship derived from the international FIA GT1 World Championship, but meant to provide competition for more amateur racers in closer to production cars. The series used extensive performance balancing and handicap weights to make cars more equal.
The 2007 FIA GT Championship was the 11th season of FIA GT Championship auto racing. It was a series for Grand Touring style cars competing in two classes, GT1 and GT2, the latter being less powerful and more closely related to road-going models. Cars from National Championships and GT3 cars were also allowed to compete, but were not eligible to score championship points. The series began on 25 March 2007 and ended 21 October 2007 after 10 races.
Darryl Hayden O'Young is a Canadian-born Hong Kong racing driver.
Andrea Bertolini is an Italian professional racing driver currently driving for AF Corse in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He is the official test driver of the Maserati factory. Bertolini began racing at a young age, working as the youngest ever test driver for Ferrari at 19, followed by work in the experimental and development department. He also participated in the development of the Maserati MC12, in which he has enjoyed racing success winning for three times the FIA GT Championship in GT1 class, and also claiming the first edition of the FIA GT1 World Championship. He won the WEC championship in GTE Am category in 2015 and in the same year he won the 24H of Le Mans in the same class.
The BPR Global GT Series was a grand tourer-based sports car racing series which ran from 1994 to 1996 before becoming the FIA GT Championship in 1997. The series was founded by Jürgen Barth, Patrick Peter, and Stéphane Ratel as an international endurance racing series to replace the World Sportscar Championship which had ended in 1992.
The 2008 FIA GT Championship season was the twelfth season of the FIA GT Championship. It featured a series for Grand Touring style cars broken into two classes based on power and manufacturer involvement, called GT1 and GT2. Invitational G2 and G3 classes were also allowed to participate but cars in these classes were not eligible to score points. The Championship began on 20 April 2008 and ended on 23 November 2008 after 10 races.
The 2009 American Le Mans Series season was the 39th season for the IMSA GT Championship, with it being the eleventh season with the American Le Mans Series moniker. It began on March 21, 2009, and ended on October 10, 2009 after ten events. The series was composed of Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand Tourer (GT) race cars divided into four classes: LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2. A fifth category, known as the Challenge class, was also added for select races and featured Porsche 997 GT3 Cup cars from the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge. 2009 was also the final year for GT1, with Corvette Racing abandoning the class after Long Beach and switching over to much more competitive GT2 class.
The FIA GT1 World Championship was a world championship sports car racing series, developed by the SRO Group and regulated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), that was held from 2010 to 2012. It featured multiple grand tourer race cars—based on production road cars and conforming with the GT1 (2010–2011) and GT3 (2012) regulations—that competed in one-hour races on multiple continents. All cars were performance balanced, with weight and restrictor adjustments, to artificially equalise their performance. Championships were awarded each season for drivers and teams.
The 2009 Budapest City Challenge was the fifth round of the 2009 FIA GT Championship season and was organised by City Challenge GmbH. It took place at the Hungaroring, Hungary on 30 August 2009. Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini won for the Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati after the disqualification of the K plus K Motorsport Saleen. Richard Westbrook and Emmanuel Collard of Prospeed Competition won in the GT2 category by passing the AF Corse Ferrari on the final lap of the event.
The 2009 FIA GT Zolder 2 Hours is the eighth and final round of the 2009 FIA GT Championship season. It took place at Zolder, Belgium on 25 October 2009. It was also the final round held under the FIA GT Championship banner before the introduction of the FIA GT1 World Championship and FIA GT2 European Championship in 2010.
Štefan Rosina, born 15 July 1987 in Púchov, Slovakia is a Slovak racing driver racing in GT cars. He has competed successfully in the FIA GT1 World Championship and Porsche Supercup. He is the incumbent Vice Champion in the Fanatec GT2 European Series, driving for True Racing by Reiter Engineering, the KTM works sportscar effort.
Prospeed Competition is a sports car racing team based in Liège, Belgium. It was founded in 2006 by Rudi Penders and Luc Goris. It has been a factory-supported Porsche team since 2008.
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.
Group GT3, known technically as Cup Grand Touring Cars and commonly referred to as simply GT3, is a set of regulations maintained by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for grand tourer racing cars designed for use in various auto racing series throughout the world. The GT3 category was initially created in 2005 by the SRO Group as a third rung in the ladder of grand touring motorsport, below the Group GT1 and Group GT2 categories which were utilized in the SRO's FIA GT Championship, and launched its own series in 2006 called the FIA GT3 European Championship. Since then, Group GT3 has expanded to become the de facto category for many national and international grand touring series, although some series modify the ruleset from the FIA standard. By 2013, nearly 20 automobile manufacturers have built or been represented with GT3 machines.
