Country International Drivers 63 (2013) Tyre suppliers Michelin | Inaugural season 2006 Teams 20 (2013) | |
Category Grand tourer sportscars | ||
The International GT Open is a grand tourer-style sports car racing series founded in 2006 by the Spanish GT Sport Organización. It is a spin-off of the Spanish GT Championship, and uses a similar format, except its races are held internationally.
Contents
Format
The series consists of events in various European countries which feature two races over a weekend. In its first year, the races had an identical format to the Spanish GT Championship, with two 200 km races, the first held on Saturday and the second the following Sunday. Three of the six rounds were joint events for the Open and the Spanish GT Championship.
In 2007, the first race, known as Pro-Am, covers approximately 200 km distance, while the second race is 150 km and known as GT Open. The only exception is the Open GT Barcelona, which is a single 300 km race. In early seasons, a few races have been a part of the World Touring Car Championship support package.
Regulations
Each race consists of a field of grand touring-style cars broken into different classes based on power and weight. For 2006, two classes were used, known as GTA and GTB. GTA is equivalent to the GT2 class used in the FIA GT Championship, but it also allows non-homologated cars provide they obey the FIA GT2 technical regulations. Most of the field is made up of Ferrari F430 GTs and Porsche 911 GT3-RSRs. Non-homologated cars like the Mosler MT900R and the SEAT Cupra GT are also competitive.
The GTB class consists of cars usually from a manufacturer's one-make cup series, like the Ferrari F430 Challenge, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, and the Marcos Mantis. A GTS class was created to house the FIA GT3 class, consisting mainly of Dodge Viper Competition Coupes and Lamborghini Gallardo GT3s. Ferrari 458 still remain the unbeatable car of the last four years: 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.