Stéphane Ratel Organisation
The Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) is a motorsport organization founded by French driver Stéphane Ratel in 1995. Based in London, the company is involved in the promotion, support, and organization of various national and international auto racing series around the world. The group is backed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), who provide the regulations for all international and most national SRO series. Local regulatory bodies also assist the SRO, such as the Fédération Française du Sport Automobile (FFSA) and Royal Automobile Club of Belgium (RACB).
Stéphane Ratel founded the Venturi Trophy in 1992, a one-make racing series aimed at wealthy amateurs.[1] After the success of the series, he convinced the Automobile Club de l'Ouest to reintroduce grand tourers at the 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans, which included seven Venturi entries.[2] Later he assisted in the creation of the BPR Global GT Series in 1994. Ratel founded the SRO to expand on his experience with BPR and begin to expand smaller national or one-make series.
SRO Motorsports Group
The main organisation of the SRO is the Motorsports Group, which acts as organizers for auto racing series. Although the main group works with all series, there are German, Belgium, and Latin American divisions that concentrate on specific series within their region. Most racing series are grand tourer-based, but not all. Most SRO-run national series have adopted the racing formula that the FIA GT3 European Championship laid out in 2006 with its founding by the SRO and FIA.
The SRO has also taken over promotion and organisation activities for existing series, such as Belcar and the FFSA GT Championship.
Current series
Endurance Series
GT World Challenge Powered by AWS
GT4 Series
GT3 & GT4 Series
Touring Car Series
Current events
- Spa 24 Hours*
- Suzuka 10 Hours
- California 8 Hours
- Bathurst 12 Hour
- Kyalami 9 Hours
- FIA GT World Cup
- FIA GT Nations Cup
- Asia Pacific 36 Endurance Cup
- Curbstone Track Events
Former series
- Venturi Gentleman Drivers Trophy
- Lamborghini Supertrophy
Defunct series
- BPR Global GT Series
- FIA GT Championship
- FIA GT1 World Championship
- FIA GT3 European Championship
- FIA GT Series
- Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship
- Renault Clio Cup UK Series
- Blancpain Revival Series (GT90's Revival Series)
- Dutch GT4 Championship (It merged with GT4 European Cup in 2014)
- British Formula Three Championship
- Supercar Rally (features V6, V8 or V10 coupé)
Defunct events
Series to the sale
*Series/events held online in 2020 through Assetto Corsa in the wake of COVID-19
References
- Behind the Title: Stephane Ratel, Pt. 1 - Laurent Mercier, Sportscar 365, 22 July 2015
- Behind the Title: Stephane Ratel, Pt. 2, Sportscar 365, 23 July 2015
- "SRO Becomes Majority Shareholder of PWC". Sportscar365. Retrieved 18 July 2018.