GT3: There are moments in history when those involved know they are witnessing something important. More often than not, however, the full significance of these events only becomes clear with time.
This last description perfectly matches the inaugural round of the FIA GT3 European Championship at Silverstone in May 2006. For most observers, it was the launch of a new GT category. Few suspected that they were witnessing the birth of a global motorsport phenomenon.
Stéphane Ratel, whose company SRO The organizers of the FIA GT Championship, who were about to lead the charge with GT3, perhaps had the slightest idea. The motivation was twofold: to control the explosion of budgets and to better serve amateur drivers, who then, as today, constituted the backbone of GT racing.
“The cost of GT2 had become unsustainable and it was dominated by two manufacturers,” explains Ratel. “We received numerous expressions of interest from teams and tuners, which convinced us to launch an independent series rather than integrate GT3 as a category within the FIA GT Championship.”
“At the same time, we introduced a number of new features, such as the sprint format of two one-hour races, with each car driven by two drivers, a format that had been first introduced at the Lamborghini Super Trophy. So we felt that it could be a success.”
Among its key innovations, the GT3 category envisioned the use of existing car models, allowing manufacturers to achieve significant cost savings, and their performance would be balanced to ensure fairness. Ratel presented the concept to the FIA and received the full support of the then-president, Max Mosley.
In December 2005, a launch event was held in Monte Carlo, and less than six months later, the first race exclusively for GT3 cars took place at Silverstone as part of the Supercar Showdown. Dominated by the FIA GT Championship, the competition also hosted support races for the Ferrari Challenge and the Maserati Trofeo, attracting around 150 GT cars to the British circuit.
Among the teams entered for the inaugural FIA GT3 season was Barwell Motorsport, which still competes in the category today. Barwell also participates in the GT3 Revival Series, giving its director, Mark Lemmer, a comprehensive view of the GT3 category.
“Unlike almost every other fledgling series, this one was unique because of Stéphane’s requirement to field six cars per manufacturer,” recalls Lemmer, whose team ran three Aston Martin DBRS9s in 2006. “We had almost 50 cars on the starting grid for the very first race, which was absolutely incredible.”
The final grid comprised 44 cars, represented by eight manufacturers at Silverstone. Aston Martin (DBRS9), Corvette (Z06), Ferrari (430 Challenge), Lamborghini (Gallardo) and Porsche (997 GT3 Cup) are still involved in the series, while Ascari (KZ1R), Dodge (Viper) and Maserati (GranSport Light) were present for the launch.
Among the Ferraris entered was the usual British GT duo, Hector Lester and Allan Simonsen, who, along with their engineer John Buchan, had teamed up with the Monegasque team JMB Racing. Buchan continues the story.
“JMB owned two cars and was struggling to find a third. So Stéphane suggested we talk. Hector and I met them during a test day at Dijon and decided to follow up. We saw them again later at Silverstone.”
“I prepared our car in Scotland and brought it back. We converted it to GT3 specifications, which essentially consisted of a different bumper, a splitter, and a rear wing; I think that’s all. Then we did a test, and Allan put it on the front row.”
A word about the drivers. Max Verstappen's recent exploits in GT3 could be compared to Michael Schumacher's in GT twenty years ago, but Schumacher wouldn't have been allowed to race in FIA GT3. The series effectively prohibited professional drivers, the grid being made up mostly of amateurs and a few rising stars like Simonsen and the future champion Sean Edwards.
"This project was primarily aimed at amateur drivers," explains Ratel. "We established rules regarding experience and skill levels, including the exclusion of factory drivers and those with a solid single-seater career."
An exception was made for Klaus Ludwig, three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, who was admitted due to his age. At 56, he was certainly not the youngest driver on the grid, but he was still capable of being the fastest, as he clearly demonstrated by securing pole position for the first race. Simonsen missed the time by just 0,133 seconds to match the veteran German, but had to settle for second place.
The regulations stipulated that the fastest driver from each team – invariably the professional – had to start Race 2. Therefore, Lester drove the JMB team's 430 for this first race. Rain was falling at the start, causing a collision and sending Lester into a spin on the very first lap.
Two Dodge Vipers dominated the first part of the race, but the dynamics shifted again during the second half of the hour-long event, when the track began to dry. Witnessing this situation, as he prepared to take the wheel of the charging Ferrari, Simonsen felt fortunate.
"He suggested switching to slick tires, even though the track seemed too wet," Buchan recalled. "The first few laps were quite hesitant. Then he took the lead."
Buchan's factual description perfectly sums up the situation: with his tires at optimal temperature and the track changing from wet to dry, Simonsen could just as easily have been driving a GT1 car. The Dane was ten seconds faster per lap than the leaders and was overtaking at will.
Several other drivers had also opted for slick tires, but even they couldn't stop Simonsen's blistering comeback. On the penultimate lap, he overtook Edwards' Porsche to win the inaugural GT3 race.
“I was overtaking four or five cars a lap, it was awesome!” said Simonsen after the race. “This championship is fantastic; who would have thought there would be 44 cars for the first round?!”
JMB Ferrari nearly achieved a 1-2-3 finish in Sunday's second race, which was run in the rain from start to finish. Simonsen, who started 16th, took the lead on lap four. Lester had a two-second advantage going into the final lap but was held up in Becketts Corner by a slow-moving Corvette. Andrea Ceccato ultimately took the victory in his Viper, sharing the podium with Stefano Livio.
With an impressive starting grid and two races decided on the final lap, the event had been a huge success. But, as Lemmer points out, there were still a few details to iron out.
“Prodrive had underestimated the performance required for this car. As a result, for the first race, we had an H-pattern manual gearbox and five-stud wheel nuts!” Lemer recalls. “They quickly realized that wouldn’t be enough. To their credit, Prodrive reacted brilliantly, and for the next race, we had single-hub wheel nuts and a six-speed sequential gearbox.”
While entertaining, the competition was far from guaranteed, and it was by no means obvious that it represented the future of endurance racing. The FIA GT3 championship was presented as a series focused primarily on amateur drivers, where teams, rather than manufacturers, played a central role.
But to use a more modern term, GT3 was about to enter a new era. The ingredients that had made it a success from the start – notably the equal level of competition among so many manufacturers – were going to make it an increasingly attractive discipline. Twenty years later, it doesn't just dominate GT racing: it defines it.
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