Series promoter Stephane Ratel has revealed that the Total 24 Hours of Spa is set to be missing from the calendar for the first season of the new FIA GT1 World Championship in 2010.

In a press conference over the course of the weekend at the famed Belgian circuit, Ratel provided an update to the media on progress with the new series.

The Lamborghini LP6760 R-SV became the third car for 2010 unveiled during the weekend, with Ratel confirming that there has been interest from no fewer than 24 teams looking to take a place on the grid. Gigawave, Marc VDS Racing and Hexis Racing are amongst the teams
to have either confirmed, or expressed interest in competing in the new series.

Ratel had previously said he was looking to run a twelve event calendar and the SRO chief said he was confident that it would happen, although events in Moscow and Bucharest are now unlikely to figure.

While Spa is set to feature, it won't be as part of the actual 24 Hour race – which will instead be for cars in GT2, GT3 and GT4.

“We hope to retain the 24 Hours of Spa as part of the FIA GT2 European Championship,” Ratel said. “The project we have so far discussed with RACE, the promoters of the 24 Hours of Spa, is to have a round of the FIA GT1 World Championship within the Spa 24 Hours event, but not in the Spa 24 Hour race. The Spa 24 Hour race would then become for GT2, GT3 and GT4 cars, and would be part of the FIA GT2 European championship.

“In this way, we could welcome more cars in the 24 Hours, and we can be reasonable on the team budgets for the first year of the FIA GT1 World Championship, where they will have to go from eight races this year to twelve races in different parts of the world, so this is a good compromise and I am very happy with it.”