The spirit of Montjuïc
The 2025 Peter Auto season kicked off with the Espíritu de Montjuïc at the Circuito de Barcelona-Cataluñu. As the name suggests, the three-day event evokes the spirit of the races held on the streets of the hill that towers over the Catalan capital. Between 1969 and 1975, the temporary circuit hosted the Spanish Grand Prix three times. To mark those occasions, there were three Formula 1 cars from this era prominently on display in the paddock. On track, the action focused on the ten Peter Auto grids consisting of sports cars and touring cars from the early 1950s through to the late 2000s. Over 300 cars took to the track during the weekend, which included two freshly restored Porsche 917Ks, two Audi R8s and an ex-Prodrive Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello.
It was not by accident that Barcelona was chosen as the season opener. This was with an eye on benefiting from the first signs of spring on the European continent. The weather, however, was more akin to spring at Spa-Francorchamps with rain showers and only the odd sunny spells. This did not dampen the spirits and as can be seen in our class-by-class 220-shot gallery, the action was quite literally non-stop for three days.

Early sports racers
The Gentlemen Challenge and Sixties' Endurance cater for sports racers of the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s. The earliest cars are found in the Gentlemen Challenge for which two 45-minute races were held with a mandatory pit-stop. In the first race Luc-Pierre Verquin emerged victorious, kicking off the title defence with his Lister in style. Spanish racer Guillermo Fierro grabbed the victory on Sunday in his Maserati Tipo 60 Birdcage.
One of the most prestigious races of the Peter Auto weekend is the two-hour Sixties' Endurance. Qualifying was held on a very wet track, so it not necessarily reflected the potential pace in the race. Olivier Hart was fastest by quite a margin in a Cobra, which was sufficient to clinch pole position on aggregate with team-mate Bram Bontrup. It was dry-ish for the race but the slippery conditions meant that there were quite a few full-course yellow and safety car periods. After the mandatory pit-stops, the fast but fragile Lotus 15 of Michael Birch and Luke Stevens emerged in the lead. Stevens was hunted down by Maxime Guenat in a Shelby Cobra Daytona but he struggled to get by until the Lotus almost inevitably broke down. Guenat inherited the lead and grabbed victory ahead of the sister cars of Erwin France and Armand Mille, which were both also prepared by Equipe Europe for a historic one-two-three victory.

Touring Cars
In the Classic Touring Car Challenge, Bontrup also started on pole position with his Ford Mustang, beating seasoned touring car racers Tom Chilton and Matt Neal with their Lotus Cortina. The Dutchman made no mistakes in what was almost resembled a boat-race and won the one-hour race with a minute in hand.
In the one-make 2.0L Cup, the 90-minute race was surprisingly tight with the top eight still very close one hour in the race. In the end, it was 2.0L Cup specialist Oliver Bryant who won, a dozen seconds ahead of James Thorpe and Phil Quaife.
Going into the first corner all the protagonists of the Heritage Touring Cup were vying for the lead with the exception of Sebastian Glaser, who only just emerged from the pit-lane while the others were already at the first-corner apex. He had damaged his new BMW 3.0 CSL in qualifying and opted to start from the pits. Helped by the inevitable safety car periods, the German moved up the order and eventually crossed the line in second behind the CSL shared by Olivier and David Hart. A five-second track-limits penalty for Olivier Hart saw Glaser promoted to a classic last-to-first victory. Maxime Guenat was third in a Ford Capri RS 3100.

Classic Endurance Racing
A capacity grid for the Classic Endurance Racing 1 was another highlight of the weekend. The field included a pair of Gulf-liveried Porsche 917 Ks, a fleet of Lola T70s and the Ferrari 512 M of the Harts. They were on pole with a margin of almost five seconds. The race was not kind to the leaders as first the Harts, then Charlie Hyett in a Chevron and Armand Mille with a puncture on his Lola T70 Mk3B saw them drop down the order. There were no such issues for the Emile Breittmayer who snatched the win with his Lola T70. Second overall was for the two-litre Chevron B19 of John Emberson and Nigel Greensall. Olivier Hart was classified third ahead of Armand Mille.
For the second Classic Endurance Racing grid, qualifying was also a little one-sided with Maxime Guenat setting the fastest time in his Lola T286, well over two seconds ahead of the closest challenger. For what was the final race of the meeting, the weather had cleared and Guenat immediately grabbed the lead. It was yet another messy race with several interruptions. Making the right calls during the pit stops, Dominique Guenat moved up the order with his three-litre TOJ to make it a Guenat one-two finish. Third was Frack Morel in his two-litre TOJ.
It was a Joest Porsche 962 affair in Group C with Ralf Kelleners and Ivan Vercoutere winning race one and Lukas Halusa just beating the Sauber-Mercedes of Kriton Lendoudis in the second.

Endurance Racing Legends
Back in 2019 at Barcelona, the Endurance Racing Legends (ERL) grid started with the first races for 1990s and 2000s sports prototypes and GTs. Six years ago there were 22 cars on the grid but the growth in popularity saw the ERL field split in two with ERL2 dedicated to two generations of GT2 cars.
Fastest in qualifying for the ERL1 was Alfie Briggs in the Zytek 06S that had been rebuilt to 04S specifications. Also on the grid was Tom Chilton, who was reunited with the Zytek 04S that he raced in period. Due to a conflicting schedule with his BTCC efforts, he could not qualify but by race was sufficiently dialled to finish third from the back of the grid. In race one, it was Christian Albrecht who scored the win with the ex-Dyson Racing MG-Lola EX257. Alex Müller was victorious in the second race with the Judd-V10 powered Dome S101.
Porsche 911 GT2s made up the front-row for both ERL2 races. Tim Pappas had a strong start in race one but ultimately missed out on the victory due to a messed pit-stop in the 911 GT2 he shared with Jeroen Bleekemolen. Pole-man Sebastian Glaser also had little luck with his GT2 as both times he had to retire from the lead with mechanical issues. On both occasions Max Lynn with a much later Ferrari F430 GTC grabbed the ERL2 race win.

Final thoughts
Despite the challenging conditions, everyone was happy to get back on track after the winter break. The Espíritu de Montjuic represented a great start to what will be a very busy season with five regular events and the biennial Le Mans Classic as the cherry on top. The 2025 edition was a true spectacle, which we tried to capture to the best of our ability in this 220-shot gallery.