Although this year’s Le Mans Legend, the annual historic support race at the Le Mans 24 Hours, will be best remembered as the scene of Sir Stirling Moss’s last-ever competitive laps, it was in itself a superb race, featuring 61 Le Mans cars from the 1949-65 era.

Next year, the focus will move forward in time… and on the Saturday morning of the Le Mans 24 Hours (16th June 2012), it will be the magnificent cars of the Group C era vying for race honours.

The historic support race is run, as ever, by Motor Racing Legends. Chairman Duncan Wiltshire explains the reason for inviting the Group C cars back, after their last appearance in 2010: "While we like to pick a different era for the Le Mans Legend each year, there is no doubt that Group C cars have a huge following and provide some tremendously exciting on-track battles for the hundreds of thousands of Le Mans spectators. We have no doubt that June will see another race to remember."

The Group C cars at Le Mans 2010 were certainly a memorable sight: a front row of all Silk Cut Jaguars led a mind-boggling grid that included Spice, Sauber Mercedes, Nissan R88C and Porsche 962 among the front-runners and, according to Bob Berridge of Group C/GTP Racing, which is putting next year’s grid together, 2012 should be better than ever. "Given the level of interest from ‘new’ Group C car owners, it looks certain that we will enjoy another significant increase in grid numbers for 2012," he says. "We are committed to ensuring that Group C attends some of the major historic festivals held throughout Europe, and we are thrilled to be adding to this a support race for what is arguably the greatest race in the world, the Le Mans 24 Hours."

Potential competitors should contact Zoë Copas at Group C Racing on +44 (0) 7824 393839. Or for more details, see www.motorracinglegends.com or www.groupcracing.com.

Text: Charis Whitcombe
Photos: Motor Racing Legends