Introduction
The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is famous for many things, perhaps above all for the changeable conditions; it can rain at one end while the sun is out at another, and it is not unknown for one weekend of racing to feature all four seasons. There was nothing of the sort, however, during the 2026 edition of the Spa Classic. Instead, one of the flagship events of the recently renamed Le Mans Classic Series was held under beautiful and very pleasant conditions throughout. This gave the competitors on the nine different grids the opportunity to enjoy the intricacies of the Spa-Francorchamps to the fullest. A set fixture on the Peter Auto calendar for over a decade, this year's edition saw some changes with the introduction of two new grids; the Heritage Touring Cup 2 for Group A touring cars and the GT3 Revival for GT3 cars homologated between 2006 and 2013.
Our photographers enjoyed a lovely weekend in the Ardennes and also captured the 2026 Spa Classic in its entirety. The result is this class-by-class, 200-shot gallery.

Fifities and Sixties
The earliest cars out on track during the 2026 Spa Classic were in the Gentlemen Challenge, for which two 45-minute races were on the schedule. The very diverse grid included an Allard J2 from 1951 but also a lovely Abarth Simca 2000 GT from 1966. Dominating at the sharp end of the field were the late 1950s sports cars with Serge Kriknoff clinching pole position with this Lotus 15. During the two races, however, it was Luc-Pierre Verquin who came to the fore in the Lister Kobbly Chevrolet that he won the championship with in 2024. Runner-up in the first race were John Spiers and Nigell Greensall in a Costin bodied and Jaguar-engined Lister, while Kriknoff secured the second podium position in race two.
One of the prestigious races on the roster is the two-hour Sixties' Endurance with fastidiously prepared Shelby Cobras and Jaguar E-Types going head-to-head. During qualifying, Xavier Dayraut came out on top, beating the Bizzarrini 5300 GT of Liam and Loris Hezemans by a hefty margin. During the race, it was reigning champion Maxime Guenat who came to the fore in the Shelby Cobra Daytona, he shared with Guillaume Mahe. The Equipe Europe prepared machine did not miss a beat and crossed the line after two hours with a 31-second lead over the E-Type of James Thorpe and Jonathan Mitchell.

Touring cars
An intricate part of the Peter Auto events for many years, the Heritage Touring Cup grid was originally created for the Spa Classic, to celebrate the period during which the Spa 24 Hours was run for touring cars. So it was only fitting that the new Heritage Touring Cup 2 grid debuted during the 2026 Spa Classic. The HTC2 is reserved exclusively for 1980s and early 1990s Group A cars and the 23-strong grid featured a colourful mix of BMWs and Ford Sierras with a TWR Jaguar and Volvo 240 added to spice things up. Pole position was for BMW specialist Mats van den Brand in his M3 and he lead the one-hour race early on. This, however, proved one of attrition, which eventually gifted the win to Sam Adriaans with his M3.
The HTC1 race quite literally started with a bang as a driver who had started on the fourth row of the grid with his Chevrolet Camaro quite spectacularly missed his braking point for the first corner. Not only was he forced to retire, he had also taken out two contenders for the victory Maxime Guenat with a Capri and Leo G. in a BMW 3.0 CSL. Armand Mille, who had started on the front row also suffered damage to his left rear quarter but could eventually resume. He fought his way back up the order and then passed his Equipe Europe team-mate Yves Scemama for the lead on the lap that the race was unfortunately red-flagged. This meant that Scemama was declared the winner with a margin of just 0.378 of a second over Mille.

Classic Endurance Racing
Headlined by a Gulf-liveried Porsche 917 K, the stacked Classic Endurance Racing 1 grid was a crowd favourite at Spa. Despite qualifying sixth, 917 K driver Claudio Roddaro could not start the race due a mechanical issue. There were no such problems for the Lola T70 Mk3B that was shared by Jan Magnussen and Chris Ward. The Danish ex-Formula 1 driver was the fastest in qualifying by over two seconds. As a professional, he did have to overcome a time penalty that was added to the pit-stop but together with Ward, he developed such a pace that the winning margin over Armand Mille in another T70 was still nearly 15 seconds. Third was for another T70, shared by father and son David and Olivier Hart.
Magnussen and Ward also teamed up in CER2, this time in a two-litre engined Lola T292. They were on pole again, beating all the larger engined three-litre prototypes by over a second. During the race, Maxime Guenat showed great pace and grabbed the lead by lap three in his Lola T286. He went on to cross the line in first but then demoted to fifth due to several penalties for speeding under full course yellow. This saw Magnussen and Ward claim their second win of the weekend, ahead of the three-litre Lola of Stéphane Nguyen and the similarly powered TOJ of Yves Scemama.

Endurance Racing Legends
The fastest cars of the weekend were found on the Endurance Racing Legends 1 grid for Le Mans Prototypes and GT1 cars. Pole position was for Alfie Briggs in a Zytek, while Christian Albrecht was second fastest in an Audi R8. He could not make the start of the first race so it was Olivier Galant who was the biggest challenger in his rumbling Panoz. The front-engined Le Mans Prototype showed great pace during Saturday's race and clinched the victory by four seconds over Briggs. On Sunday, Thomas Mücke was invited to drive the Audi and he had a remarkable rush up the order from the back of the grid and eventually finished third behind Brigss and Galant, who had scored his second of the weekend in the Panoz.
Reserved exclusively to GT2 cars, the ERL2 grid covers a relatively long period; from 1995 through to 2010. Not surprisingly, the most modern cars headed qualifying with Philip Kadoorie topping the time sheets in his ex-Team Modena Ferrari F430 GTC. The only non-Ferrari in the top five was the Aston Martin V8 Vantage shared by James Thorpe and Phil Quaife in second. During the first race, father and son Hart emerged as the front runners with their Ferrari. They won from Thorpe and Quaife and Kadoorie in the pole sitting Ferrari. The second race, scheduled for Saturday evening had to unfortunately be cancelled due barrier repairs being required after a big hit in the preceding GT3 Revival race.

GT3 Racing Legends
The GT3 category as we know it today was created by the Stephan Ratel Organisation (SRO)in 2006. By using the then novel 'Balance of Performance' method a level playing field was created, which allowed cars from many different manufacturers to compete and eliminate the need for the extensive and often expensive development on the cars. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of GT3, Peter Auto partnered with the SRO to create the GT3 Revival series to support select GT3 World Challenge Europe races, while also featuring on the roster for the Spa Classic and Le Mans Classic. With 41 cars on the entry list, the GT3 Revival had a great showing at Spa. There were two 50-minute races scheduled with the Saturday race due to be held after the sun had set. The night race saw Jonathan Mitchell start on pole position with his Aston Martin V12 Vantage. It turned out to be a very eventful session, which was eventually red-flagged eight laps in due to a big accident in the high-speed Blanchimon corner. Guillaume Dumarey, driving a sister V12 Vantage was classified as the winner ahead of the Nissan GT-R shared by Max Lynn and Andrew Bentley. The second race was more straightforward as pole sitter Jim Pla grabbed the victory in the Ferrari 458 GT3 he shared with Jean-Luc Beaubelique.

Final thoughts
Around 30,000 spectators flocked to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the 2026 Spa Classic. They enjoyed a fantastic three days in the sun with great racing throughout. The new grids added some additional colour, while the set fixtures also featured superb racing. All this and much more can be found in our class-by-class 200-shot gallery.