Scotland’s legendary Ecurie Ecosse racing team has revealed its plans for a return to the scene of a famous 24 Hours of Le Mans victory, six decades on from the remarkable triumph.
The Edinburgh-based privateer outfit wrote its name into the annals of motorsport with overall wins at the blue riband sportscar endurance events with its Jaguar D-Types in both 1956 and the following year.
In 1957, Ron Flockhart and Ivor Beub led an Ecurie Ecosse one-two at the famous Circuit de la Sarthe in north-west France, and Le Mans is back on the radar of the famous team, which has continued to taste sportscar success – including last year at the hands of Angus schoolboy star Sandy Mitchell.
The team, whose famous metallic blue cars were originally prepared in a garage on Edinburgh’s Merchiston Mews, revealed it has paired up with Nielsen Racing to take on the Le Mans Cup feeder series to the European Le Mans Series, as well as the new Henderson LMP3 Cup.
The championship starts in May at Monza, Italy before heading to Le Mans for the biggest race of the season – dubbed the Road to Le Mans.
Four further rounds follow at top European circuits and the series concludes in October in Portimao, Portugal.
The team will field Ligier LMP3 machinery in both championships, with Colin Noble and Alasdair McCaig competing in the Henderson LMP3 Cup and Noble and Tony Wells in the Le Mans Cup.
“We have plenty of exciting news to come, but to start with it’s great to confirm our race programme for the coming season” said director and driver McCaig.
“We are pushing hard to get back into the sports car scene and we feel this is the perfect time and the best opportunity for us to build on our experience, history and passion for endurance racing, while delivering the results for our sponsors.”
In 1983, Ecurie Ecosse Association member and Edinburgh businessman Hugh McCaig took control of the team – founded in 1951 by capital accountant David Murray – and it has since gone on to success in series’ including the World Sportscar Championship and British Touring Car Championship.
It has also triumphed in the British GT Championship, in which teenager driver Sandy Mitchell last season became the youngest ever race winner at just 16 years and 169 days behind the wheel of the Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse McLaren 570S GT4.
