This year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli campaign will feature three rounds on as many continents following SRO Motorsports Group’s decision not to replace the Suzuka 10 Hours.
Several new and existing events in the Middle East have been considered since the 49th Summer Endurance Race – originally scheduled for August 20-22 – was cancelled by local organisers in mid-March due to Japan’s domestic Covid-19 measures.
However, and despite evaluating promising opportunities across the region, a combination of calendar clashes, budget implications and general suitability has made a replacement round impossible to stage.
Instead, the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa kicks off the global GT3 championship’s 2021 campaign on July 29-August 1 before IGTC joins forces with Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS at the Indianapolis 8 Hour on October 15-17. The campaign concludes with the Kyalami 9 Hour on December 2-4.
Stephane Ratel, SRO Motorsports Group Founder and CEO: “We invested much time and energy into finding a replacement event that would uphold Intercontinental’s purpose of uniting the world’s great GT endurance races. And although several options would have achieved this aim, each also presented a new set of challenges to overcome. Given the current global situation I believe it is better to focus our energies on IGTC’s three existing rounds.
“I would like to thank each of the parties and promoters for their positive collaboration and hope to work with them again in the future. Indeed, although Intercontinental won’t be visiting the Middle East this year I remain confident that these discussions will subsequently allow us to explore fresh opportunities.”
REVISED 2021 CALENDAR
Jul 29-Aug 1 – TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa – Europe
Oct 15-17 – Indianapolis 8 Hour – North America
Dec 2-4 – Kyalami 9 Hour – South Africa
Source. SRO Motorsports Group
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