8th January, 2009

The eligible years for the 2009 Le Mans Legend, the historic support race organised by Motor Racing Legends on the Saturday morning of the Le Mans 24 Hours, have been announced. This great historic event, on 13th June 2009, will be for cars built between 1949 and 1965.

The Le Mans Legend race is run on the full 8.5 mile circuit on the morning of the start of the 24 Hours race. It is for cars which ran at Le Mans in their day and genuine 'sister' cars of the same specification, and is for either one or two drivers. The race pays further tribute to the heritage of this great event by starting with the traditional ‘ear of corn’ formation, while scrutineering will take place – true to history – in the city centre on the Thursday of Le Mans week.

The 1949-1965 era starts with the post-War years, a time when entries were essentially road-going sports cars adapted for the track. The 1949 Le Mans 24 Hours was the first time for 10 years that the race had been held and it welcomed such entries as Aston Martin DB2, the Embiricos Bentley and the eventual winner, Ferrari 166MM.

It was not long, however, before road-going sports cars were replaced by purpose-built racers and, by the end of the chosen era, Le Mans had been the 'battleground' for Ferrari 275LM and 330LMB, Aston Martin DBR1 and Jaguar C-type and D-type, along with AC Cobra and Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé, Austin-Healey 100S, MGA Le Mans and many others.

Says Duncan Wiltshire of Motor Racing Legends, “This is our ninth historic support race at Le Mans and it looks likely to be one of the most exciting and competitive ever. It is the exhilarating sight of historic cars in full-on combat, combined with the Le Mans pedigree of the cars taking part, which makes the Le Mans Legend so popular with the 230,000 spectators at the 24 Hours race weekend. We want to ensure that the battle for overall victory – and in each class – is as closely fought as possible and, to this end, GT40s will not be invited this year, as their success lay after this era. Since cars from the Fifties and Sixties are so widely recognised and admired, we think this period will prove extremely popular with spectators.”