Bentleys to race again at Le Mans

Special event will see 75 WO-era cars compete in celebration of the centenary of the legendary 24 Hours

1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930 – and, of course, again in 2003. This makes it the fifth most successful marque at the event, after Porsche, Audi, Ferrari and Jaguar.

For the Classic, Historic cars run throughout the 24 hours, but in several stints for each of the six grids. These are decided by age: Grid 1 is for 1923-39 cars, such as those WO Bentleys again; Grid 2 is for 1949-56, so expect to see Jaguar Cand D-types battling with Mercedes; Grid 3 is 1957-61, dominated in period by Ferrari; Grid 4 is the 1962-65 era of Ford vs Ferrari; Grid 5 is 1966-71, which started with Ford domination but ended with Porsche; and Grid 6 is 1972-81, when the likes of the Matra V12s and Gulf Mirages pushed out the Porsches.

Those are the headline cars, but in every grid there are the others that go into battle further down the field, making for an amazing sight as they blast down the Mulsanne Straight together.

If you like your cars a bit younger than these six grids, then the Le Mans Classic support races are for you. This year there are two, in addition to the Vintage Bentley race: Group C and, competing for the first time at the Classic, Endurance Racing Legends.

Group C is for cars raced between 1982 and ’93, including the Porsche 956, Lancia LC2 and their rivals from Jaguar, Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan and Mazda, along with those from smaller constructors such as Dome and Spice. The Endurance Racing Legends event is for GTs and Prototypes from the 1990s and 2000s – more than 70 of them. They will include the Aston Martin DBR9, Bentley Speed 8, Cadillac Northstar LMP-01, Dodge Viper, Lola-MG EX257 and more. Expect thunder!

In all, the Le Mans Classic will see more than 800 Historic race cars on track and 8500 classic cars on display. Tickets are still available, but they are selling fast.

The Bentley gathering is just one of many centenary celebrations throughout the year.

The Le Mans 24 Hours, already sold out for this year, takes place on June 10-11. Test day for the 24 Hours takes place on June 4, with practice and qualifying on June 7-8 and the opening ceremony on June 9.

There will be special parades at the 24 Hours, along with a centenary display at the Le Mans circuit museum. In addition, a new trophy has been created to award to the winners of the 2023 24 Hours.

Then there are the many other Le Mans centenary celebrations at events worldwide, taking place throughout the year.

These include displays at the UK’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, US’s Monterey Motorsports Reunion and many of the major concours around the world, including The Amelia in Florida, USA.

See the Magneto website for more, www.magnetomagazine.co,.