This weekend the SRO Motorsports Group celebrates 25 years of GT racing. Before the champions from the past and the present took to the stage at the Palais Brongniart in Paris, founder and CEO Stephane Ratel briefly looked back on a rich history, but also took time to explain the future plans of the most successful GT promotor on the motorsports planet.
During the fourth weekend of June 1992 Stephane Ratel organised his first ever race, on the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans. It was the launch of the Gentleman Drivers Trophy, for the French sportscar manufacturer Venturi. Its runaway success ignited the revival of GT racing, which subsequently spread through the BPR Endurance Series, Lamborghini Super Trophy, FIA GT, GT3 European and GT1 World Championships, the Super Racing Weekends, Le Mans Series and numerous national GT championships. Today, that success continues with the Blancpain GT Series in Europe and Asia, Blancpain GT Sports Club, US-based Pirelli World Challenge, the Total 24 Hours of Spa and the Intercontinental GT Challenge, British and French GT Championships, GT4 European Series and the many GT4 franchises around the globe.
Having organised many successful series, Stephane Ratel has a clear vision on what GT racing should look like. “GT racing is like a pyramid, of which the amateur racer forms the base,