Historic racing's crown jewel
One of the jewels in the crown of historic racing is the annual Spa Six Hours. Run for pre-1966 GT cars, it is one of the very few long-distance races in historic racing. Held at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps track, it traditionally runs into the evening. Although perhaps not as strong as it has been in the pre-Covid and pre-Brexit years, the race attracts well over 75 cars that range from MGBs to mighty Ford Falcons and a fleet of GT40s. The event is both a test of men and machines, and also a bit of a lottery due to limited re-fuelling stations available. All these factors combined make the Spa Six Hours one of the most difficult to win and thus coveted races on the historic racing calendar. In the build-up to the main event, the event also featured a plethora of support races for sports racers, touring cars and single seaters. With the Six Hours scheduled for Saturday afternoon, the meeting started on Thursday already.
Our photographers were at the undulating track and braved the conditions to capture the 2025 edition of the Spa Six Hours in this class-by-class 180-shot gallery.

Tin top support races
After a day of qualifying, one of the first races on the the program was heat one of three for the Youngtimer Touring Car Challenge. With 75 cars on the list, this was one of the largest fields of the weekend. It was definitely the most diverse as it included Group A legends like Sierra Cosworths and M3s but also a very wild Morgan Plus 8, TVR Tuscan, Cobras, Chevron B8s and a relatively recent Chevrolet Cruze WTCC. Run on a dry track, qualifying was topped by Mike Mahning in a Sierra. The first race was very wet and saw the TVR Tuscan of Alex Taylor grabbing victory. He sadly crashed out of the very messy second race, which was won by the 964-generation Porsche 911 Turbo of Piers Masarati. The final heat of the weekend saw Stephen Dunwoodie cross the line first with the very Ford Sierra Cosworth that had been belching flames during the qualifying session.
For their final round of the 2025 season, the Italian Alfa Revival Cup joined the Spa Six Hours roster for the first time. The one-manufacturer series featured a colourful grid of Giulia Sprint GT based machinery that ranged from early GTAs to the much more extreme GTAms. The one-hour race turned out to be a battle between the two Perfetti brothers in their Alfa Delta OKP GTAms. Pole-sitter Daniele also crossed the line first but ultimately had to settle for second behind his brother Ambrogio after a five-second penalty for track limit violations. Third was for the sister car of Roberto Restelli.

Motor Racing Legends
With three race grids, the British Motor Racing Legends (MRL) series contributed heavily to the support program. One of the star fields of the weekend was the new-for-2025 MRL GT3 Legends for GT3 cars from 2006 through to 2015. The entry list consisted of 15 cars but sadly several incidents during the very wet second qualifying saw several entries eliminated for the weekend. First up was a night race on Friday, which saw Graham Davidson win from pole position in the very Aston Martin V12 Vantage that he already raced in period. He beat the spectacular Nissan GT-R shared by Max Lynn and Christoff Cowens. It was much of the same in race 2 with Davidson this time beating the BMW Z4 of Christoph von Oeyenhausen.
Also part of the MRL roster were the combined RAC Woodcote and Stirling Moss Trophies. Pole was for the bright green Lister Chevrolet of Max Lynn and Andy Wolfe but a fuel-feed issue saw them retire early from the one-hour race. Having no such issues were Fred Wakeman and Chris Ward in the former's Cooper Jaguar, who won with a 30-second margin over John Spiers and his Lister Knobbly.
In the 40-minute Pre-War Sports Car, the car starting from pole also ran into trouble. The culprit was a broken gearshift linkage for the Alta of pole-man Gareth Burnett. This did not really affect the result as the very special Alvis 'Firefly' of Rüdiger Friedrichs and Charlie Martin proved the class of the field.

Single seaters
In previous years, the Masters Championship with their three-litre Formula 1 grid was a staple at the Spa Six Hours. Due to scheduling conflicts the French-owned series could not make it this year and an attempt to stage a one-off race was not very successful. Only a handful of cars lined up for the two races, with the first won by Paul Tattersall in his Ensign and the second by Michael Lyons in a Hesketh.
There were no such issues for the Historic Grand Prix Car Association, which had a bumper grid for the two 30-minute races. Due to the high-speed nature of the track, qualifying was dominated by the 2.5-litre engined cars with Rüdiger Friedrichs claiming pole position in his Cooper. The first race was hotly disputed and eventually settled in favour of Timothy Child with his Brabham BT3/4. Friedrichs was second, ahead of Maxime Castelein, who had moved up from seventh on the grid in his Lotus 18. The young Belgian was third again in the second race but this time behind Michel Kuiper in a Brabham BT4 and winner Friedrichs.
Also part of this year's roster was the Historic Formula 3 1000cc European Trophy. What these cars lack in displacements they made up for in show, particularly in the second 25-minute race, which saw the top three finish within two seconds. Ross Drybrough crossed the line in first with his Merlyn, ahead of the Brabhams of Jason Timms and Christophe Widmer. Winner of race one, Peter de la Roche was forced to retire his Alexis in the second race.

Spa Six Hours
While some entrants had tested early in the week, most competitors had to get acquainted with their car and the track in a single qualifying session on Friday evening. The first ten cars on the grid were GT40s, predominantly period-correct recreations, with Christian Albrecht and Seb Perez clinching pole position. The first non-GT40 was the very well prepared Ginetta G4-R entered for a trio of Danish drivers.
The race proved more of a lottery than usual right from the start due to several, lengthy safety car interruptions. The fact that the field was cut in half almost immediately due to the fact that Spa-Francorchamps uses two separate safety cars also did not help. After one hour, only three of the GT40s were running together at the head of the field, including the pole sitting car of Albrecht and Perez. As the race evolved, the very quick Ginetta also moved up the order and grabbed the lead before the end of the third hour. Not only was it very quick, it also did not have to pit as often as the GT40s for fuel. The actual re-fuelling was done at the fuel station in the paddock and had to be done by the driver without assistance. When one of the pumps failed during the race, several cars had to re-queue and this included the Danish Ginetta, which saw their hopes of victory evaporate. With the exception of an incident in the first corner, the Ford GT40 Diogo Ferrao and Martin Stretton had no serious issues and also a race winning pace throughout the race. They would go on to score a deserved victory with one of the few real GT40s on the grid. It was the second for the Portuguese car and the fifth for Stretton. The unfortunate Ginetta was the only other car that finished on the lead lap.

Final thoughts
A sports car race running into the night is always special and few can compare to the Spa Six Hours with all the elements listed above that make it so exciting, cruel and coveted at the same time. The 2025 edition had plenty of drama, great winners and also an action packed support program that made the event well worth the visit. If you missed it or want to relive it once more, here is our grid-by-grid, 180-shot gallery.