Sports car racing

Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand tourers (GT cars) based on road-going models and therefore, in general, not as fast as sports prototypes. Sports car races are often endurance races run over particularly long distances or large amounts of time, emphazing on reliability and efficiency of the car and its drivers more than outright car performance or driver skills. The FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship are some of the best-known sports car racing series. Sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel racing (such as Formula One), touring car racing (such as BTCC, which is based on 'saloon cars' as opposed to the 'exotics' seen in sports cars) and stock car racing (such as NASCAR).

A hybrid of the purism of open-wheelers and the familiarity of touring car racing, the style is often best associated with the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. First run in 1923, Le Mans is one of the longest-running motor races. Well-known defunct sports car races include the Italian classics, the Targa Florio (1906–1977) and Mille Miglia (1927–1957), and the Mexican Carrera Panamericana (1950–1954). Most top-class sports car races emphasise endurance (generally between 6 and 24 hours), reliability, and strategy, over pure speed. Longer races usually involve complex pit strategy and regular driver changes. As a result, sports car racing is seen more as a team endeavour than an individual sport, with team managers such as John Wyer, Tom Walkinshaw, driver-turned-constructor Henri Pescarolo, Peter Sauber and Reinhold Joest becoming almost as famous as some of their drivers.

Success in sports car racing helped build the prestige of Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Lancia, Lotus, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche. These makers' top road cars have often been similar in engineering and styling to those raced. This close association with the exotic nature of the cars distinguishes between sports car racing and touring cars.

The 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring, and 24 Hours of Le Mans are considered the Triple Crown of endurance racing. Other crown-jewel sports car endurance races include Petit Le Mans, Nürburgring 24 Hours, Spa 24 Hours, Bathurst 12 Hour and Suzuka 1000km.