Racing for sports-prototypes and GT cars from up to five years ago is not historic in the true sense, yet it is the fastest growing element of the overall historic racing industry.
It was Masters Historic Racing founder Ron Maydon who pioneered racing for this generation of cars as a way of widening the appeal of his offering. In the space of three or four seasons, it has grown impressively and more than 80 cars, dating from 2000 to as recent as 2018, ran across two grids at the Silverstone Festival last month. Even Maydon was surprised by the response to the twin Masters Endurance Legends and Masters GT Trophy grids.
A significant number of existing historic racers took the chance to move forward a generation and have been joined by a stream of less experienced racers who want to compete in this type and generation of car. In many cases, drivers added a suitable machine to their portfolio to give them another race or two across race weekends.
In France, Peter Auto soon followed suit with its own series called Endurance Racing Legends, catering for cars from 1994 to 2010. As part of Peter Auto’s largely French-based series of events, it has quickly gathered momentum. Meanwhile, Motor Racing Legends will weigh into the market sector at the end of the season with a pilot race dedicated to GT3 cars from 2006 to 2012 as a precursor to a fuller programme in 2025 for GT3 Legends.
Undoubtedly, the GT cars are more accessible and, given the global popularity of GT racing over the past decade and more, there is no shortage of available cars. At Silverstone in 2022, the grid was 16 cars for a Masters pilot race for GT4 cars. Two years later, 45 from 12 manufacturers were on the grid for a GT3/GT4 race.
But it’s the prototypes that grab the biggest headlines and arguably please crowds the most, and the type of cars that won Le Mans for Porsche and Audi are back on the track along with machinery from the LMP2 and LMP3 categories. One of the drivers reliving Peugeot’s Le Mans glory days with diesel power is Steve Brooks.
“Let’s be honest, I think the Peugeot 90X is possibly one of the nicest cars ever built,” is Brooks’s opening shot. His second-generation, V8-engined 908 has a Le Mans history with Nicolas Minassian. “They are amazing pieces of engineering,” adds Brooks.
With a strong pedigree in Historic F1 cars, explorer and Spitfire pilot Brooks has been able to make the jump to modern prototypes and says that, as a gentleman racer, it’s an achievable step. That’s despite the high downforce levels and performance – the top cars hit 170mph down Hangar Straight.
“It’s a lot to learn to drive, but when you get there it is extraordinary and very rewarding,” says Brooks. “It’s a very strong package and you feel very safe in there. It gives you confidence.
"They’re better and easier to run than a Group C car. Modern LMP cars were always designed to be raced flat out"
Martin O’Connell
“It takes some getting used to, but it’s an extraordinary car because you can’t really hustle it. It revs to 3700rpm but it’s got so much torque, and you have to be smooth. If you try and throw it around, it just doesn’t like it. You go into a corner and you think, ‘There’s no way that I’m going to get around here.’ But you just have to trust the car.”
As car owners have added prototypes and GTs to their portfolio, so many of the preparation teams have had to step up and take on cars not previously on their radar. Elsewhere, teams with relevant experience have also been able to offer their services into a new market sector.
One such team is that headed by the human dynamo that is Martin O’Connell. From a promising single-seater career as a youngster, he remains a talented and versatile racer. But his main focus is OC Racing, which fields a wide array of period racing machinery, including recent prototypes, for customers.
“The cars are amazing and it’s a real spectacle,” enthuses O’Connell. “The problem with them is that they might be relatively modern compared to some historic cars, but they’re all getting to be old cars. Some of them are 10 to 12 years old and maybe older than that.”
O’Connell reckons that the less complex prototypes from LMP2 and LMP3 are not particularly complicated to run. Many parts were mass produced so are easily replaced or replicated in a newer version. LMP1 cars, however, are a different challenge.
“When you get into the LMP1 cars, it’s a lot more bespoke, so you have a lot more challenges in terms of keeping them going,” he points out. “Some of the customer LMP1 stuff is easier, because 50% of that was always off the shelf. The only issue you really have with those is if you crash them, because fabricated parts and machine parts are easy to reproduce, but bodywork is difficult because of the moulds and that gets really expensive.
“When you get into the manufacturer cars like the Peugeots or the Audis, that’s more difficult. Every aspect of the car is bespoke, but they are in a different league to the customer cars in terms of manufacture quality. But they can be a nightmare because with the Peugeot, for example, the software and the engine management mapping is all in French.”
Being forced to use French software will be a challenge for a UK-based team, but O’Connell is still a fan of the top-level prototypes: “They are fabulous cars and stunningly good. It’s a pleasure to drive them, and it’s a pleasure to work with them.
“People always say that they must be cheap to run because they were built to do 24 hours. The problem is, they were built to do 24 hours when they were brand new. They were not built to do 24 hours when 10 years old.”
In some ways, these machines have become a natural replacement in historic racing for Group C cars, even though Peter Auto still runs Group C races and Masters Historic Racing is moving into the Group C arena with its own offering for 2025.
“They’re better and easier to run than a Group C car,” says O’Connell. “With the Group C cars, the technology is really old. The cars are fragile because they were always raced in a compassionate way, if you like, for fuel economy, whereas the modern LMP cars were always designed to be raced flat out.”
Seasoned professional racer Oliver Webb has gone back to the type of cars he raced a decade ago and says that the recent growth of modern GTs and prototypes in the historic arena is good news.
“It’s both extremely exciting and also quite depressing that I can race my first era of car now in historic racing,” smiles Webb. “To have done a couple of years of P2 and eight years of LMP1, and now be back into a prototype car racing with friends and clients in this championship is awesome. These events are incredibly good fun.”
Webb believes that the new series represent an amazing opportunity for drivers to get their hands on very fast cars on very good circuits, but still on sensible budgets in racing terms.
“A good amateur can still get a lot out of one of these cars, especially the earlier generation ones as they’re a little bit more user friendly,” he reckons. “The data and video systems these days make it very usable and a good way that you can help a driver come forward. A new driver can come from having driven no race cars to things like classic E-type Jaguars to race a prototype around Silverstone. They’re really, really good.”
