Today , GT3 is regarded by many as the be-all and end-all of GT racing . The hugely successful category from Europe has managed to conquer the remote US and Japanese markets to create a truly united GT world and is where all the big names are . But these names have to come from somewhere and , increasingly , fresh burgeoning driver talent gets promoted from GT3 ’ s understudy category , GT4 , which now forms a viable alternative route to the top of sportscar and GT racing – especially since the traditional single-seater ladder is becoming more expensive with every year .

The GT4 category was first established in 2007 , following the introduction of the FIA GT3 European Championship in 2006 . At the time , its promoter SRO and its ally , the RACB – the Belgian federation and organiser of SRO ’ s jewel in the crown , the Spa 24 Hours – felt that a true amateur championship was needed to complement their new GT3 series and so , one year later , they introduced the GT4 class . Since its formation , GT4 has led a varied and up-and-down life , originally starting out as the affordable amateur category envisioned by SRO , then slowly falling from grace , then morphing into today ’ s mixed bag of juniors and gentlemen drivers . Many national series quickly adopted GT4 as a secondary class while the Netherlands took it on as its main category . This meant that Holland has always played a leading role in GT4 racing . However , after its initial success , SRO ’ s own FIA European GT4 Cup saw its entry numbers dwindle before the series was temporarily split into the GT4 European Series Northern Cup and GT4 European Series Southern Cup in an attempt to reduce costs . The former soon returned to being the proper European series while the latter morphed into the French GT4 series .

Today , Britain , Germany , France , Italy and Belgium all have their national GT4 championship , either in stand-alone form ( Germany and France ) or running as a second tier in the main GT3 championship ( Britain , Italy , Belgium ). Germany ’ s Nordschleife-based NLS series – formerly known as VLN – also has a flourishing GT4 category , as have Creventic ’ s 24H Series and Abu Dhabi ’ s Gulf 12 Hours . Meanwhile , the Nordic countries run their own GT4 Scandinavia series , while SRO created GT4 America and GT4 Asia to follow in the worldconquering footsteps of big brother GT3 .

Celebrating its 15 years of existence , Masters Historic Racing has gathered a second ‘ modern historic ’ grid for this year ’ s Classic . In the one-off Masters GT4 Challenge , Masters has aimed to collect and present a wide range of cars homologated to the GT4 class of today ’ s GT racing . The two Masters GT4 Challenge races are open to any cars built to GT4 regulations , split into a Classic class for cars that have dropped out of homologation and a ‘ Current class for cars that continue to be eligible for today ’ s events . They will

THE CLASSIC - SILVERSTONE SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 2022 | Page 73

MASTERS GT4 CLASSIC SILVERSTONE CHALLENGE