The British GT Championship is a
sports car racing
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...
series based predominantly in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
. The series was originally created by the
British Racing Drivers' Club
The British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) is an exclusive invitation-only members club for racecar drivers who are judged to have achieved success in the upper levels of motor sport for a number of seasons. Except under exceptional circumstances, me ...
in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports GT Challenge. The series is currently run by the
Stéphane Ratel Organisation
SRO Motorsports Group (formerly the Stéphane Ratel Organisation) is an international sporting organisation best known for promoting and running a variety of racing events and series, including the Total 24 Hours of Spa, Intercontinental GT Chal ...
, while
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is a multinational tyre manufacturer based in Milan, Italy. The company, which has been listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, is the 6th-largest tyre manufacturer and is focused on the consumer production of tyres ...
began its first season as the championship's official sole tyre supplier in 2016.
Two classes currently compete in the championship: GT3 and GT4. A consolidation of GT regulations and significant manufacturer support saw British GT first introduce a GT3 class in 2005. The category later mirrored FIA
Group GT3
Group GT3, known technically as Cup Grand Touring Cars and commonly referred to as simply GT3, is a set of regulations maintained by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for grand tourer racing cars designed for use in various au ...
and used near-identical regulations to the
FIA GT3 European Championship
The FIA GT3 European Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) and regulated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It was a championship derived from the international FIA ...
from 2006 onwards. GT3 rules include extensive
Balance of Performance
In sports car racing, balance of performance (BoP) is a regulation and mechanism that maintains parity between competing vehicles by adjusting limits on a car's parameters, such as horsepower, weight, engine management, and aerodynamics to preven ...
and handicap weights to make cars artificially more equal. Cost-saving measures saw the series' previous premier class, GT2, phased out at the end of 2006.
The SRO
GT4 class was adopted in 2008 intended as a development class towards GT3. Regulations governing GT4 ensure the cars more closely resemble their road-going counterparts than GT3 machines, to control cost. This replaced the previous unique-to-British GT GTC category. British GT has featured a number of other classes since its inception, including
Group GT1
Group GT1, also known simply as GT1, was a set of regulations maintained formerly by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), for Grand Tourer racing. The category was first created in 1994, as the top class of the BPR Global GT Seri ...
.
Champions
The following drivers have previously won the British GT championships in their respective classes. An overall championship for all classes combined was also awarded until 1998, and those champions are marked with ''italics''.
See also
*
British Formula Three Championship
References
External links
Official British GT website
{{Motorsport in the UK
1993 establishments in the United Kingdom
Recurring sporting events established in 1993
National championships in the United Kingdom
Group GT3
GT4 (sports car class)