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.
Gianmaria "Gimmi" Bruni is an Italian Porsche factory auto racing driver who drove in the 2004 Formula One World Championship for Minardi. He is a GP2 Series race winner and is now racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, in which he gained the 2013 and 2014 GT Drivers' Titles whilst driving as a factory Ferrari driver. He won the 2008 FIA GT Championship, 2011 Le Mans Series and 2012 International GT Open and took three class victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 2008, 2012 and 2014. He also was successful at the 2009 and 2015 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, 2010 12 Hours of Sebring and 2011 Petit Le Mans.
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.
Dirk Müller is a German Ford factory racing driver, driving for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing in the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. His former Schnitzer BMW team-mate Jörg Müller is unrelated, as is French driver Yvan Muller.
Stéphane Ortelli is a Monégasque professional racing driver with three world championship titles. He has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1998 with Allan McNish and Laurent Aïello and the Spa 24 Hours in 2003 with Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb. He's also won the GT1 Class at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2005 with David Brabham and Darren Turner. Currently, he is an Emil Frey Racing driver competing and developing the Jaguar and Lexus GT racing cars in the Blancpain Endurance Series and the VLN series.
Toni Markus Vilander is a Finnish professional racing driver who currently drives for the Risi Competizione Ferrari team in various categories of sports car racing.
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.
Alessandro Pier Guidi is a racing driver from Italy. A Ferrari factory driver since 2017, he won the LMGTE Pro FIA World Endurance Championship in 2017, 2021 and 2022, the 2019 and 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMGTE Pro class, and claimed the 24 Hours of Spa in 2021, as well as taking an overall win at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans along with James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi.
Larbre Compétition is a French auto racing team founded in 1988 by Jack Leconte. Based at the Circuit du Val de Vienne in Le Vigeant, Larbre has had considerable success in the Porsche Carrera Cup, French GT Championship, and international FIA GT Championship. Previously working with major automobile manufacturers like Porsche, Ferrari, and Chrysler, Larbre ran one of the factory Aston Martin squads in the Le Mans Series where they won the 2006 GT1 class championship.
Risi Competizione is an Italo-American auto racing Ferrari factory-backed team formed by Giuseppe Risi in 1997. Initially, the team had a partnership with Doyle Racing using the name Doyle-Risi Racing, but soon Giuseppe Risi took full control of the project and it was rebranded with its current name in 2000. Risi Competizione has won races and championships in the IMSA GT championship, American Le Mans Series, and Rolex Sports Car Series, as well as earning three class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998, 2008 and 2009. Much of Risi Competizione's success has come through the use of Ferrari machines.
The 2009 FIA GT Championship season was the thirteenth and final season of the FIA GT Championship for grand tourer cars competing in the GT1 and GT2 categories. The season began 3 May, and ended 25 October after eight races. This was also the final season of a combined GT1 and GT2 championship before the launch of the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2010.
The 2009 Total 24 Hours of Spa was the 62nd running of the Spa 24 Hours and the fourth round of the 2009 FIA GT Championship season. The race took place at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps between 25 and 26 July 2009. Joining the FIA GT Championship competitors were cars from numerous national GT series as well as competitors from the FIA GT3 European Championship. This was the last time GT1 machinery was eligible for the race, as well as the last Spa 24 Hours that was part of the FIA GT Championship.
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 Paul Ricard 2 Hours was the penultimate round of the 2009 FIA GT Championship season. It took place at Circuit Paul Ricard on 4 October 2009. The race was won by the Corvette of Enrique Bernoldi and Roberto Streit for Sangari Team Brazil, ahead of the No. 2 Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati and Selleslagh Racing Team Corvette. In the GT2 category, Toni Vilander and Gianmaria Bruni won from pole position in the AF Corse Ferrari, leading the Prospeed Competition Porsche and the second AF Corse Ferrari.
Christopher James Buncombe is a British racing driver who made his last appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours was in 2011. He joined Aston Martin Racing at the end of the 2009 season when he drove in the Le Mans Series scoring a podium finish on his debut with the team at Nürburgring driving the 008 Aston Martin LMP1 car. Chris won the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class driving for Binnie Motorsports in their Lola B05/40-Zytek.
The 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship was the third and final season of the SRO Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, an auto racing series for grand tourer cars. The 2012 championship, which opened to GT3 Series Grand Touring cars, featured two titles awarded to the highest scoring competitors over the course of the season: the GT1 World Championship for Drivers and the GT1 World Championship for Teams. The series underwent regulation changes in 2012 with GT3 cars replacing the GT1 category vehicles used in the previous two seasons of the World Championship. Hexis AMR, now under the title Hexis Racing, returned as the defending Teams' World Champions, while German drivers Michael Krumm and Lucas Luhr didn't return to the series to defend their Drivers' World Championships.
Proton Competition is a German auto racing team is based in Ummendorf, Baden-Württemberg. It was founded by Gerold Ried, and is currently owned by his son Christian Ried. The team currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship with a customer Porsche 963 and a factory-supported Ford Mustang GT3. It also competes in the European Le Mans Series with the Oreca 07 and the Porsche 911. They also have a racing program in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, racing with a customer Porsche 963 and a factory-supported Ford Mustang GT3.
François Hubert Marie Perrodo is a French billionaire businessman, racing driver, and car collector. He is the chairman of Perenco, an oil and gas company with operations in 16 countries, which was founded by his father. In October 2023, Forbes estimated his family to be worth US$10 billion.
Grand Touring Endurance, shortened to GTE, was a set of regulations maintained by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and IMSA for grand tourer racing cars used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 hours of Daytona GTLM, and its associated series. The class was formerly known as simply Group GT between 1999 and 2004, and later referred to as Group GT2 between 2005 and 2010. The GT2 name has since been revived for a different set of regulations.
Antonio Fuoco 
Miguel Molina 
Nicklas Nielsen 
James Calado 
Robert Kubica 
Robert Shwartzman 
Yifei Ye 
Thomas Flohr 
François Heriau
Simon Mann 
