Spa 24 Hours

The 24 Hours of Spa is an endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by Total S.A..

History


The Spa 24 Hours was conceived by Jules de Their and Henri Langlois Van Ophem just one year after the inaugural 24 Hours of Le Mans was run. It debuted in 1924 over a 15 km circuit on public roads between the towns of Francorchamps, Malmedy and Stavelot, under the auspices of the Royal Automobile Club Belgium (RACB). The present 7.004 km circuit was inaugurated in 1979 with only slight variations since then.

The Spa 24 Hours was part of the European Touring Car Championship from 1966 to 1973, again in 1976 and from 1982 to 1988 (with the exception of 1987 when it was part of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship). The event also counted towards the World Sportscar Championship in 1953 and the World Endurance Championship in 1981. As on the Nürburgring, both a 24h and a 1000 km race is held at Spa, as the 1000 km Spa for sports car racing were introduced in 1966.

Cars entered have spanned from the Russian Moskvitch and models with sub-1 liter engines such as the NSU Prinz TT to the luxurious V8-powered Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3. Tuned by Mercedes-AMG, the 6834 cc and 420 hp so-called "Red pig" finished as high as second in 1971.

With the participation of Swiss Lilian Bryner on the victorious Ferrari 550 of the BMS Scuderia Italia team, the 2004 race marked the first time in history that a female driver was part of the winning team of a 24-hour endurance race in a Gran Turismo with more than 500 hp.

The current version of the Spa 24 Hours is an event under the Blancpain Endurance Series calendar, although it was previously run as part of the FIA GT Championship featuring GT1 and GT2 machinery, and by various touring car series. Currently, the cars run fall under the FIA GT3 and GT3 Cup classifications. It has also been a round of the SRO Group's Intercontinental GT Challenge since its inaugural season in 2016.

Coupe du Roi
The best manufacturer wins the Coupe du Roi (King's Cup), which is not necessarily the race winners. The cup is won by the manufacturer with the most points, accrued by cars that are made by the same manufacturer. For example, Australian car manufacturer Holden won the Coupe du Roi in 1986 despite their cars finishing the race in 18th, 22nd and 23rd positions outright.