24 Hours of Spa, link between the past and the future

To honour the rich past of the Total 24 Hours of Spa, the SRO Motorsports Group has decided to reinvigorate the category known as Group N, reserved for cars from single-make series. This will give amateur drivers the opportunity to participate in the endurance classic with the cars they use all season, cars that often generate plenty of interest with the thousands of fans on the grandstands.

With some 60 GT3 cars already certain to be on this year's entry list, the Total 24 Hours of Spa further confirms its status as the biggest GT3 race on the motorsport planet. With less than two months to go before the start of the 68th edition of the Total 24 Hours of Spa, the SRO Motorsports Group and its partners in the Blancpain GT Series wish to honour the legend and tradition of the endurance classic, by reinvigorating the Group N category.

Group N, with the N referring to national, was introduced at the beginning of the 21st century, when the Total 24 Hours of Spa became a GT-race. The category gave the - mainly Belgian - drivers who dominated the event at the end of the Touring Car era the opportunity to take on the best GT drivers in the world.

Plenty of drivers that went on to shine in the Blancpain GT Series or the Total 24 Hours of Spa made some of their first international GT steps in the Group N category. Markus Palttala, one of the drivers in last year's winning BMW, took the inaugural Group N win in 2001 for instance. Or there was Kurt Mollekens: winner in the last Touring Car year in 2000, Group N winner in 2003 and overall winner in 2009.

The Group N not only gave drivers and teams the possibility to enter the cars they used to drive in national championships or single make series in the Belgian classic, but to the joy of many a race fan the category was often home for some of the most extravagant racing cars, such as the Gillet Vertigo, the Mosler MT900 of the muscular Ford Mustang.

When the Total 24 Hours of Spa became the highlight of the Blancpain GT Series and adopted its GT3 rules, the interest in Group N diminished, with the last entry dating back to 2013. The SRO Motorsports Group now wishes to create new enthusiasm for this category, out of respect for the important part it has played in the race's history.

There will be two cups within the Group N: the XtraCup, intended for cars from high-level single-make series (Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo or Renault R.S. 01), and the Cup, reserved for cars from single make series such as the Porsche 997 Cup, Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo, Ferrari 458 Challenge and Maserati Trofeo. All machines entered in the Group N category have to be driven by three Bronze drivers, or three Bronze and one Silver (who cannot drive for more than six hours). The category will have its own classification and separate podium ceremony.

Blancpain GT Series