The ragbag of GT cars that took to the Circuit Paul Ricard for a couple of hastily-organised races in August 1993 hardly captured the world’s imagination. Autosport made no mention of it in its pages, and for good reason. The grid lacked quantity and quality, and there were no star-name drivers. No one could have predicted that it would be the start of something big. So big that its legacy stretches all the way to the present day.
The event ended up acting as a pilot for what the motorsport world generally refers to as the BPR series. GT racing was reborn with the BPR Organisation’s run of non-championship GT races in ’94, which then morphed into the Global Endurance GT Series for ’95. International sportscar racing in Europe, the Le Mans 24 Hours included, was hauled out of the mire in double-quick time.
