The Spa Summer Classic had it’s seventeenth edition during a very sunny weekend. Also this year, the event brought together teams, drivers, and mechanics for a diverse programme featuring both sprint and endurance races. The grids showed many Touring cars, GT’s and also single-seaters. The highlight of this weekend was the three-hour endurance race, exclusively for pre-1976 Touring and GT cars, with refuelling stops at the circuit's fuel pumps. During the whole event there was free entrance for spectators which also had the opportunity to explore the paddocks.
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1300 European Touring Car Challenge
The “1300 European Touring Car Challenge” (1300 ETC) offers a platform for historic motorsport enthusiasts to compete on track with their small Touring cars up to 1300cc.
The 1300 ETC Challenge entered its second season and there has been a significant increase in competitors. At Francorchamps 32 participants filled the grid in Mini Coopers, Volkswagen Polo’s, Simca 1000 Rally’s, Lada’s and even a Matra Jet 6. In the first race, German Thomas Schröder and his VW Derby (a notchback variant of the Polo) seemed to be holding the lead, but that was without counting on Frenchman Enzo Thiefain in the Mini Cooper S, who emerged the clear winner in a strong battle with the Derby. The second round once again saw Enzo Thiefain winning in a fierce battle. The Frenchman's Mini only edged out Christian Kehr's VW Polo by 0.5 seconds! -
Belcar Historic Cup
One of the major events of the Spa Summer Classic, the Belcar Historic Cup once again attracted a large number of entries, 57 competitors took part in this splendid Battle of the Ardennes. Belgian Tom Van Rompuy drove the impressive BMW E36 GTR (owned by Erik Qvik) into pole position for Race 1. Tom Van Rompuy drove a brilliant race, winning by no less than 11 seconds over Luc Branckaerts' Corvette C4 ZR1. After battling with the Corvette lap after lap, Tim Kuijl lost contact late in the race but still managed to drive his BMW 325i E36/Warsteiner onto the third step of the podium. Starting from pole position in Race 2, Erik Qvick was aware of Salewski's Porsche 911 RSR following close behind but once again the BMW E36 GTR won with a lead of around 4 seconds. Tim Kuijl took the podium for the second time this weekend with the E36 BMW 325i. -
Historic Championship ’65 and ‘81
The German Historic Championship is Europe’s largest racing series in historic motorsport.Two race series were held at this meeting, the Historic Championship ’65 and the Historic Championship '81. In the ’65 championship cars like the Ford GT40, Jaguar E-Type, Austin Healey 3000, AC Cobra, Lotus Elan, Alfa Romeo GTA, and Porsche 911 are competing. Two races of 25 minutes each were completed on Saturday and Sunday. The Ford GT40 of Pedro and Luco Sanchez crossed the finish line first on Saturday. During the second on Sunday, however, it was Oliver Hartmann who took the chequered flag first in the Elva Mk.8. Thirty-four cars were starting in the pre ’81 championship like BMW 2002, Ford Escort RS1600, Alfa Romeo 1750 GTAm, Porsche 911 Carrera, BMW 3.0 CSL and even two Lola’s T210. A 90-minutes race was held on Sunday in which the winning ’65 series GT40 was starting from pole position! This GT40 driven by Luco Sanchez kept the lead until the end of the race. It took almost two minutes before the next cars past the finishing line, three Porsches Carrera RSR and the BMW 3.0 CSL ! -
Spa 3 Hours
This 3 hour race is part of a European Endurance competition organized by the Portuguese organization Race Ready. It’s the crowdpuller of this event. The race was marked by the outstanding performance of the little Ginetta G4R driven by the two Danish pilots Palle Pedersen and Alexander Weiss. Already holding a surprise pole position after a qualifying session marked by numerous red flags, the two Danish drivers confirmed their position in the race by getting off to a flying start and then literally crushing the competition to claim an overwhelming victory, no less than two laps ahead of the TVR Tuscan V6 of Connor Kay and Ben Caisley, despite having been served by a drive-through penalty for overtaking under the safety car! Result of the penalty was that the Lotus Elan 26R driven by Ben Barker and Rory Butcher took the lead but in the penultimate lap the Elan stopped aside the track with an engine failure. Luckily the classification of this race is based on total distance covered, with no obligation to cross the checkered flag so the drivers of the Elan car still finished on the podium. The roaring and spectacular Ford Capri RS2600 of the Dutch Kuijl family finished in fourth place. -
Battle of the Dwarfs
The race series "Battle of the Dwarves" was launched in 1992. Over the years, the series has grown considerably and is currently Germany's largest sprint racing series. The small touring cars, with a maximum displacement of up to 1300 cc, are crowd favorites at every historic motorsport event. There is no strict model year limit but the release date of a specific model is up to 1974. This means the model must have been launched before 1974. The cars are divided into five groups. Cars like the Fiat Abarth 1000 TCs, Autobianchi A112, and Fiat 127, with just over 1000 cc. compete in the Abarth Coppa Mille. In the British Car Trophy, the Mini Cooper is the major entry. Many Germans will remember the old days of NSU TT hillclimb and slalom races. These cars are competing in the NSU TT Trophy. The 1300 Histo-Cup is home to classic touring cars like the Fiat 128, Simca Rallye, and Lada’s. The Simca 1200 S Coupé driven by Hans März was the overall winner during both races but the highly modified Mini Cooper S driven by Swiss Gregor Nick finished very close behind the Simca in the second race. The Fiat-Abarth 1000 TCR (Michael Männl) finished third in both races. -
Super Sixties Racing
SuperSixties Racing (formerly NKHTGT) was founded in 1996 as the Dutch Championship for Historic Touring Cars and GTs. Nowadays it has grown into a series of competitions in various countries. For 2025 there are a striking number of new drivers from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden. Supersixties Racing is very popular with spectators because of the variety of participating cars, ranging from the big Ford GT40s to the tiny Mini Coopers. The SuperSixties 2025 competition kicked off at a Spa-Francorchamps with 53 cars on the track with two GT40’s, two Corvette Grand Sports, three Shelby Cobra Daytonas, ten Lotus Elans, several MGBs and Lotus Cortinas etc. It was the pale green Lotus Elan driven by Lando or Alexis Graf von Wedel which was fastest during the qualification. During race 1 the Lotus Elan kept the lead just for one lap and quickly dropped back into the back of the field so Laurent Jaspers to over the lead in the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé closely followed by the Shelby Mustang GT350 driven by Roelant de Waard. In this order the podium places were filled. Race 2 on Sunday-afternoon Laurent Jaspers started from pole position but was overtaken by Swede Kennet Persson in his Ford GT40. Kennet grapped victory with Kaj Dahlbacka second in the Corvette Grand Sport. Laurent Jaspers finished third. Lando and Alexis Graf von Wedel were more lucky in race 2 as they finished fifth overall. -
Historic Monoposto Racing
The first race for the Historic Monoposto Racing didn’t last long, just three laps because of a crash. The race was neutralized, not restarted and a classification wasn’t made. On Sunday thirty-five monopostos started a more exciting race. Frank Färber's Reynard SF84 left from poleposition and won the race just 1.3 seconds in front of the Irishman Peter Drennan in a Royale RP27. - This seventeenth edition of the Spa Summer Classic, organized by Roadbook events was undoubtedly an excellent event as all race series on the program delighted a large crowd. The next Roadbook event is the legendary Spa Six Hours 25-27 September 2025 also held at the circuit of Francorchamps. Pictures by Guus Docen
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