Global Street Racing Championship

The Global Street Racing Championship (also known as GSRC or G5) is the highest class of international illegal street racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Street Racers' Championship, which became the FIA Street Racer World Championship in 2008, has been one of the premier forms of racing around the world since its inaugural season in 1992.

As World Street Racers' Championship (1992 - 2007)

 * 1992 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 1993 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 1994 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 1995 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 1996 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 1997 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 1998 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 1999 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 2000 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 2001 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 2002 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 2003 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 2004 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 2005 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 2006 World Street Racers' Championship
 * 2007 World Street Racers' Championship

FIA Street Racer World Championship (2008 - 2030)

 * 2008 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2009 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2010 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2011 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2012 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2013 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2014 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2015 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2016 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2017 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2018 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2019 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2020 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2021 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2022 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2023 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2024 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2025 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2026 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2027 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2028 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2029 FIA Street Racer World Championship
 * 2030 FIA Street Racer World Championship

Controversies & Accidents
Throughout history, there have been some significant tragedies in the GSRC's history. These are the Crashes & Controversies That Changed GSRC Forever.

Nürburgring, 1998
On the evening of Friday, April 3rd, 1998, a race at the Nürburgring Track in Germany was well underway - this time, a three-way battle between Nissan, Ford & Porsche. We join the race at Lap 39 - Michael Schumacher, in his Porsche 911 Carrera, and Ayrton Senna, in his Nissan Skyline GT-R R33, were battling furiously at the front of the pack, pushing both cars to the limit.

While it was said the 911 Carrera was easily the best ride on the track, Michael was able to pull back first numerous times. Lap 39 signaled the first few pits stops for the leading cars. After being signaled down by his team on the previous lap to come in at Lap 39, Schumacher prepared to pit stop. After lapping Damon Hill, also in a Porsche, he soon reached the rear of Rubens Barachello, in his BMW M3 E36, who proceeded to pull over to the right to let Schumacher through.

Schumacher then lapped Barachello too, and then proceeded to himself, pull to the right, in order to pit. However, it was said that the Porsche braked very suddenly and very quickly - and Barachello had mere seconds to react. He also slammed - the BMW briefly veered to the right onto the dirt, and then swung back under heavy braking, likely under zero control. This put Barachello right on the path of Hill, who was doing over 120 mph by now. Hill had zero time to react and slammed into Barachello. The BMW was launched into the air, and flipped end over the front for over 80 meters, right into the spectator stand.

Upon impact, the car would be torn in two, with many fans tragically being crushed and decapitated by the airborne components of the car. When the Porsche finally came to a stop, the fuel tank, which had been ruptured, suddenly burst into flames, which set the bodywork alight, due to its high magnesium content.

Because of what was causing the fire to burn, when water was poured onto the burning wreckage, it only intensified. Both Hill, who slammed into the barriers and through the pit lane & Senna, who had miraculously steered through into the accident, made it out unscathed. In 2007, Senna would later recall that moments before impact, Barachello would signal a warning to him, which he believed saved his life that day. Sadly, others were not so lucky.

A reported 80 deaths & 124 injuries occurred on the evening of April 3rd, 1998 - known as the Devil's Race. Barachello himself would not survive, being thrown out of the car and onto the track, dying instantly. Despite the carnage, the race continued with officials citing the reason that if crowds attempted to leave en masse, the surrounding road would be clogged up which would hinder the attempts of emergency services to reach the crash site. Either that or the fear of sponsors suing them for large sums of money, you decide.

Senna's Nissan would be the one to take victory, after all of the Porsche 911 Carreras were quietly retired in the early hours of the following morning of April 4th, 1998. This would go on to be the 2nd deadliest GSRC accident in history, after the infamous 2007 Paris Race & the 2012 Los Angeles Race, and thankfully, the reaction was swift.

Igualada Touge, 2004
The Igualada Touge is regularly considered the wildest race in the GSRC history, being a touge track with 10 cars, starting out in the mountains and ending in the city center of Igualada. However, during the late 1990s & early 2000s, there were very clear cracks beginning to form as to how little safety this touge race actually had.

For example, in the June of 1999, Mika Salo would plunge off a cliff in his Mercedes-Benz 500E (luckily surviving), and Eddie Irvine would lose his life in the March of 2000 after wrecking his Lotus Elise 160 & in the 2003 iteration of the Madrid Race, a Toyota Yaris piloted by Alexander Wurz (the engine had been swapped for an LS engine found in a Corvette) plowed through a crowd of spectators injuring 20 and killing 4. However, the crumbilng tower would all fall in the May of 2004, while Mark Webber, with his co-driver, Darren Manning, was dominating the race in their 2002 Audi A4.

Tragically, as the pair raced their way through Ralf Schumacher's 1987 Buick GNX, the Audi would fly off a tight left hand turn, and due to an complete lack of guard rails, the Audi would plunge down the mountainside, crashing into a tree against it's roof. The fuel tank, which had been placed under the driver's seat, would rupture on impact and explode - with the wreck that was pulled up being little more than a twisted skeleton of a roll cage & chassis.

It is believed that if the two did not die on impact, there would be zero way they would escape alive, likely burnt alive - stuck in their seats. The only evidence that supports the crash happened, was a video uploaded to YouTube in 2010. What caused it, however? Theories have popped up in the internet ever since, from Mark being under heavy medication and blacking out, unruly spectators, the car malfunction or even sabotage by a rival group.

Whatever it may be, it was determined that the cars made for the touge race were way too fast (which in the A4's case, were modified to pump out 730hp) were simply too fast to race. Prior to the incident, Ralf Shcumacher even expressed concern over the car's safety, as he nearly died while driving his famous 1987 Buick GNX in 2002. And so, with immediate effect, the FIA would remove touge racing from the modes of racing.

Paris, 2007
March 25th, 2007 would be considered as the darkest day for the GSRC, after April 3rd, 1998 & May 6th, 2012. That day would also be considered as the turning point; the start of big changes. The first two events that would start the chain of change came at the qualifier for the event - January 24th, 2007, when Spanish driver Pedro de la Rosa, racing in a Mazda RX-8, would spin out and hit a crash barrier.

Although he escaped unscathed, the same couldn't be said for Japanese rookie Takuma Sato, who would lose his life on February 4th, 2007, after failing to negotiate a corner, and subsequently hitting the concrete wall at 295 KMH, splitting the TVR Sagaris in half, which it burst into flames. He was pronounced dead on the scene. Sato's death hung over like a shadow over the 2007 French Grand Prix, more specifically, on Sakon Yamamoto, who supposedly broke down in tears during a press conference.

The race on March 25th, 2007 would prove to be already bad enough, when there would be another crash at the starting line, when a stalled car would cause an impact from those behind, sending debris into the crowd, injuring 9, causing the safety car (a BMW 330i) to be brought up. After the debris was cleared, the safety car was withdrawn. However, during Lap 9, whilst approaching Christijan Albers's Ferraru and with Anthony Davidson's BMW hot on Sakon's tail, his Peugeot 106 would fail to turn, plowing the French hatchback into a barrier, with Anthony being short to turn, and pushing his car, completely crushing it and causing it to burst on flames on impact.

Both Anthony & Sakon wouldn't survive. Even more saddening, a rolled-up Japanese flag was found in the cockpit of Davidson's car, meant to honor his Sakon's friend, Takuma Sato. There were a number of factors that caused the crash, the biggest of these being the safety cars. Prior to his death, Davidson had complained about the speed of the safety cars. The BMW 330i was so slow, the tires of the cars were cooling down, and Sakon's failed turn may have been because of a loss of traction.

The Paris race was canceled, and the upcoming race on April 1st was delayed to April 8th. Due to this, the FIA made a series of changes, retiring the BMW used since the 2003 G5 Championship with a faster car - a Saleen Ford Mustang S281.