The 2009 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, held on 25–26 July at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, was a round of the FIA GT Championship. Among the GT1-class entries was the No. 8 Corvette C6.R fielded by Team Sangari Brazil — one of the relatively few South American-backed programmes to contest a major European GT1 event of that era. Spark Model has captured this specific entry in resin at 1:43.
The Corvette C6.R in GT1 Specification
Developed by Pratt & Miller Engineering from the C6 Corvette Z06 platform, the C6.R debuted in 2005 in the American Le Mans Series and was simultaneously run in international endurance events. In GT1 specification, as campaigned at Spa in 2009, the car's LS7.R naturally aspirated V8 displaces 7.0 litres and produces approximately 590 bhp. The racing bodywork is closely derived from the road-going Z06, giving the car a silhouette immediately recognisable to any Corvette follower. This GT1-spec variant is distinct from the later GTE-class cars that succeeded it.
Team Sangari Brazil at the 2009 24 Hours of Spa
Team Sangari Brazil entered multiple Corvette C6.R cars in the 2009 FIA GT Championship season. The No. 8 car carried a Brazilian-themed livery referencing title sponsor Sangari, an educational technology company. The three-driver crew brought together Enrique Bernoldi — a Brazilian who raced in Formula 1 with Arrows across the 2001–2002 seasons before transitioning to GT and endurance competition — Dutch GT regular Xavier Maassen, and Roberto Streit. The combination of an ex-F1 driver, an experienced FIA GT campaigner and a South American backer made the entry one of the more distinctive in the field.
The Spark Model Resin Replica at 1:43
Spark Model produces its 1:43 racing car replicas in resin, a material that allows precise rendering of complex aerodynamic bodywork, sponsor graphics and race liveries. The No. 8 Team Sangari Brazil livery is reproduced through tampo printing, Spark's standard method for accurate multi-colour decoration at this scale. The release forms part of a dedicated 2009 Spa 24h series from Spark, meaning it sits naturally alongside other cars from the same event batch for collectors assembling the full GT1 field from that race.
In the Display Cabinet
This 1:43 model pairs logically with other Spark releases from the 2009 Spa 24h event — GT1-class rivals such as the Aston Martin DBR9, Ferrari 430 GT and Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT run in that same race. It also complements a broader Corvette C6.R race history collection, particularly GT1-spec entries from the 2005–2009 period. For collectors focused on Enrique Bernoldi's career, it represents his endurance-racing chapter and sits alongside any Formula 1 Arrows models from 2001–2002 that document his earlier career.
