If you were one of the many people listening to Radio Le Mans’ live coverage of the FIA WEC race from Silverstone last month, you may well have detected a few winks and nudges in the air when Derek Bell MBE popped into the commentary booth and was asked by John Hindhaugh about the possibility of a Group C drive at the Le Mans 24 Hours support race in June. DSC can now reveal that the five-times winner of the French classic will indeed be returning to La Sarthe, and that he will be sharing Mark Sumpter’s FAT-liveried Porsche 962.
The 962 in question, chassis 011, has been owned by Paragon Porsche boss Sumpter since 2007 and it came second in the LM24 support race in 2008. Before that, though, the car had a long and successful race history, which can be found in full – here.
The car was shaken down at the Silverstone Classic Media Day on Wednesday by Sumpter, but both he and Bell will be hoping that there is no repeat of the deluge that greeted the 2012 Group C race at Le Mans; conditions that Bell described as being the worst that he could ever remember racing in.
