Spa 24 Hours

The race was conceived by Jules de Their and Henri Langlois Van Ophem and debuted in 1924 over a 15-kilometre circuit on public roads linking the towns of Francorchamps, Malmedy, and Stavelot, organised under the auspices of the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium. The modern permanent circuit, measuring 7.004 kilometres, was inaugurated in 1979 and has seen only minor modifications since.

During the 1970s the race attracted an eclectic entry list spanning an enormous range of machinery. Cars ranged from the Russian Moskvitch and sub-1-litre NSU Prinz TT to larger saloons such as the Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3. The AMG-tuned version of that 6.8-litre, 420 hp machine — nicknamed the "Red Pig" — finished as high as second overall in the 1971 race, a striking result for a large luxury saloon.

The Spa 24 Hours has appeared on several major championship calendars across its long history. It was part of the European Touring Car Championship from 1966 to 1973, returned in 1976, and was a regular ETCC fixture again from 1982 to 1988. In 1987 it counted towards the inaugural World Touring Car Championship season. The race also featured on the World Sportscar Championship calendar in 1953 and the World Endurance Championship calendar in 1981. A companion 1000 km race for sports cars was introduced at Spa in 1966, providing a separate endurance event on the same circuit.

The 1975 race was marked by two separate fatalities. Dutch driver Wim Boshuis was killed when his car collided with other vehicles on track. Approximately thirty minutes later, a track marshal was killed when Belgian driver Alain Peltier struck a railing near the marshal's post. These events cast a shadow over that edition of the race and contributed to ongoing debates about safety at the circuit.

The 2004 race carried particular significance for the sport's history of inclusion. Swiss driver Lilian Bryner competed on the victorious Ferrari 550 of the BMS Scuderia Italia team, making the 2004 Spa 24 Hours the first 24-hour endurance race in the Gran Turismo category with more than 500 hp (370 kW) to be won by a team that included a female driver.

The modern Spa 24 Hours is run under the GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS banner and forms a round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, a global series that links the world's premier GT endurance events. It has been part of the Intercontinental GT Challenge since that series launched in 2016. Cars compete under the FIA GT3 and GT3 Cup classifications, replacing the GT1 and GT2 machinery used during the race's earlier FIA GT Championship incarnation. The event is currently sponsored by CrowdStrike.

The 2020 race was held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, stripping Spa of the large crowds that normally characterise the event. In 2022 a scheduling conflict arose when the 2023 Belgian Formula One Grand Prix was set for 28–30 July, directly clashing with the race's traditional date; the Spa 24 Hours was rescheduled to early July as a result.

A parallel award, the Coupe du Roi (King's Cup), recognises the most successful manufacturer across the entry field. It is determined by cumulative points earned by cars of the same brand and is not automatically awarded to the outright winning team or manufacturer. The award's independence from the race result has produced notable outcomes: in 1986, Australian manufacturer Holden claimed the Coupe du Roi despite its cars finishing 18th, 22nd, and 23rd overall, demonstrating that manufacturer depth across multiple entries can outweigh individual finishing positions.

The Spa 24 Hours occupies a unique place in European motorsport as both an ancient and evolving event. Its centenary was passed in 2024, a milestone few motorsport fixtures have reached. The race has embraced successive regulatory eras — touring cars, GT1-spec machines, and now GT3-specification production-based racers — without losing its identity as one of the most demanding tests in endurance racing, run over the same challenging Ardennes landscape that has defined Spa-Francorchamps across more than a century of competition.