Le Mans prototypes to compete in Masters race at Silverstone Classic

The Aston Martin Masters Endurance Legends races at Silverstone Classic will welcome dozens of the recent Le Mans prototypes and GT cars to compete.

The races will include at least 16 P1 and P2 machines split across both categories, with another ten modern GT legends bolstering the grid.

The P1 class will see Kriton Lendoudis in a Peugeot 908, Christophe d’Ansembourg  in a Lola-Aston Martin DBR1-2, Steve Tandy in a Lola-Mazda B12/60, joined by Shaun Lynn with his Bentley Speed 8, David Porter in another diesel-engined Peugeot 908 and James Cottingham in the Dallara-Judd SP1. FIA Masters Historic Formula One regular Jamie Constable returns to the Gulf-liveried Pescarolo-Judd 01. All will have a fight on their hands with the Le Mans podium visitor and class winner Emmanuel Collard racing in a similar Judd-powered Pesca.

The equally matched P2 category will again provide some close racing, as the very competitive ORECA-Nissan 03s pedalled by Keith Frieser and Mark Higson will take on Mike Newton’s Lola-MG EX257 and the sleek Courage-Judd LC75 of Mike Furness.

Faithful AMMEL competitor Pierre Bruneau is back with his two Nissan-engined Pilbeams that he will share with Marc Rostan – like Newton both former Le Mans drivers. The special ex-Jos Verstappen/Jeroen Bleekemolen/Peter van Merksteijn Porsche RS Spyder that dominated the P2 class at Le Mans in 2008 will also join the competition. .

Finally, the GT entry has enough hallmarks of quality and variety to revive the crowd’s memories of the time GT1 and GT2 were the world’s two main GT categories. Max Girardo’s Ferrari 550 Maranello will arguably be the biggest crowd-pleaser, but Paul Whight and Colin Sowter in an Aston Martin Vantage GT2, Will & Michael Goff in a Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Stephan Jocher in a Porsche 996 GT3 RSR and Janos Santa in a Ferrari 360 GT will bring some very serious GT2 machinery.

Recent British contributions to GT racing won’t be forgotten, testimony to Steve Hyde’s presence in the Morgan Aero8 GTN and Ollie Hancock appearing in a TVR T400 R. Two GT3 cars from the cut-off year of our series (2012) will mix it up with all those – and Alexander Lienau’s Aston Martin Vantage V12 and the Arwyn Williams/Aaron Scott Ferrari 458 GT3 will definitely be among the quicker GTs out there.

The Aston Martin Masters Endurance Legends will have one race on Saturday evening and one on Sunday afternoon.