The celebration of 25 Years of GT Racing in the modern era with SRO in Paris yesterday came to a climax with a Gala Dinner, hosted by Stephane Ratel but with a huge guest list which included large numbers of the drivers, team personnel and manufacturers representatives that have graced the paddocks and grids of SRO (and their predecessors) Championships since 1992.
The guests were greeted at the glamourous central Parisian venue by a superb line-up of cars that have done battle down through the years.
From the Venturi Super Trophy, via its Lamborghini Diablo equipped successor and into the BPR era there were faces aplenty in attendance, some of whom took to the stage to share memories of their adventures.
Onto the FIA GT Championship through a variety of iterations, into the GT3 era and the FIA GT3 European Championship, the ill-fated FIA GT1 World Championship and into the Blancpain GT Series’ time.
Add in SRO’s interests in national GT racing in Germany, France, Brazil and still to this day in the UK with the British GT Championship.
And into the most recent additions, the Blancpain GT Asia Series, and the GT4 European Series North and South.
All were remembered with video sequences and guests, ranging from Ray Bellm and Thomas Bscher from the BPR era, Lister’s Laurence Pearce and Toine Hezemans from the FIA GT Championship in the early part of the new millennium.
Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini were there to recall the Maserati MC 12’s period of dominance, and its role in setting a course that defines the SRO product to this day, with Balance of Performance at the core.
It was a long evening, with the promised long speech from Stephane Ratel at its core, plus cabaret from, amongst others, the dancers of the Moulin Rouge.
Amongst the manufacturer representatives Dr Wolfgang Ullrich was present, the Audi Sport head now in the final days of his long and hugely successful career before retirement at the end of 2017. Audi Customer Racing head Chris Reinke also in attendance. Wolfgang Durrheimer (Bentley), Frank Walliser (Porsche), Antonello Coletti (Ferrari), Giorgio Sanna (Lamborghini) and Dan Walmsley (McLaren) were amongst a very strong group of manufacturer representatives.
The President of the ACO, Pierre Fillon and Managing Director of LMEM were also in attendance.
