The Spa 24 Hours: The GT Years in Pictures, 2002

As the 90th anniversary running of the Spa 24 Hours approaches this weekend we thought it would be good to look back on the GT Years amongst that long racing story.

The Belgian classic moved from Touring Cars to GTs in 2001 when the race became a round of the SRO run FIA GT Championship.

A Larbre Viper won that year but sadly the predecessor site to DSC has lost its archive – here though is a pic of the winner with thanks to the very excellent www.racingsportscars.com

2002

By 2002 we had the silky skills of John Brooks on tap and here, with little further comment are a selection of images from a race that again saw the Larbre Competition Vipers in control:

Here’s an astonishing shot from the podium – Not because Team WRT boss Vincent Vosse, Sebastien Bourdais, Christophe Bouchut and David Terrien won, but because famously downbeat Larbre team boss Jack Leconte is actually SMILING!

Here’s the eventual wining #1 car passing the Carsport Holland/ Racing Box version of the Viper, Capellari, Gollin and Marc VDS Team boss Bas Leinders the crew for the #4 car.

N-GT (and third overall) went to the #54 Freisinger Porsche of Stephane Ortelli, Romain Dumas and Manu Collard – It would get better still for the team the following year!

The very handsome #5 Force One Ferrari 550 was sadly a very early retirement.

Martin Short’s TVR Cerbera Speed 6 was the first car ever to beat Porsche in N-GT (in the British GT Championship) By 2002 it was with a new owner but the Rollcentre gang were recruited to add to the cars provenance with a run at the Spa 24 Hours – Messrs Short, Barff and Pullan brought it home after some engineering heroics.

The hugely purposeful Lister Storms always added to the aural and visual spectacle, the #14 car would DNF but the sister #15 car would post a fine second place finish, Lister’s best ever in the modern era in 24 Hour racing.