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Le Mans Classic: A cast of 1000!

Johnny Herbet, Patrick Tambay and Jochen Mass are some of the stars lining up for the Le Mans Classic on July 24-25. A stunning array of cars spanning 55 years of the event’s history is split into six groups, each racing three times during the 24-hour period, including one night race.

Over 360 cars and approximately 1000 drivers will contest the second running of the event.

The 1962-65 field has an outstanding grid that includes eight Ford GT40s, Ferrari 275GTBs, AC Cobras and the Chevrolet Corvette of Mass. Tambay, Ray Balm, Chris Chiles, Christian Glasel and Adrian Newey are all racing GT40s, while several newer GT4Os will run in the 1966-71 field.

Juan Barazi and Dutch ace Michael Vergers will contest three groups in cars from Barazi’s growing stable — a Ferrari Dino 246S, Ferrari 250LM and Porsche 917 — in a total of nine events. The Dino will line up against Peter Hardman/Ulrich Bez in the 1959 Le Mans-winning Aston Martin DBR1 and Herbert in a Jaguar D-type.

The 1949-56 field includes four C-types and three Ds, while the 1923-39 event will include the Invicta of Mark Knopfler and Alain de Cadenet.

Finally, the newest grid, for cars from 1972-78, will feature a gaggle of prototypes from Alpine, WM, Inaltera, Mirage, Lola and Chevron — and includes the famous French trio of Jean-Pierre Jaussaud (a two-time winner of Le Mans), Jean Ragnotti and Alain Serpaggi in an Alpine A443.