New cars and tough battles for the world’s greatest enduro
It’s not June, but the Le Mans 24 Hours is upon us. For the second year in a row, the world’s greatest endurance race is not in its traditional slot, but it is different to last year’s edition in two key ways.
The first is that spectators are back. The pandemic is far from over, but things are gradually heading in the right direction and the 24 Hours has long been one of the events for motorsport fans to attend.
The other is that the new era of sportscar racing has arrived. The Hypercar regulations have started in a modest fashion, with Toyota leading the way just as it did at the end of the LMP1 ruleset, but the potential is there, with Ferrari, Porsche, Audi, BMW, Peugeot and Acura all eyeing various LMH or LMDH programmes.
Our traditional free Le Mans guide covers the new rules and all the leading contenders, as well as the enthralling class battles. The hard-fought LMP2 category includes 11 ex-formula 1 drivers…
Away from sportscar racing, we look back at the final winning period for BRM with the help of designer Tony Southgate (page 16), talk to key figures at M-sport and Ford about the new Puma World Rally Car project (p22), and hear from one of the most enthusiastic racers on the British Touring Car grid: Jake Hill (p26).
As ever, there’splenty happening in club motorsport, so we’ve also got a bumper 24-page National section with the latest news, events and opinions from paddocks around the UK (p45).