NOVEMBER 5, 2004

British racing green races on

The demise (or conversion) of Jaguar Racing will not mean the end of British Racing Green at the top level of international motorsport as the national racing colour will now be transferred to Aston Martin Racing, which yesterday unveiled the Aston Martin DBR9 at Gaydon. The cars will mark the return of Aston Martin to competition with the goal being to win the Le Mans 24 Hours. The cars will run for the first time at Sebring next year and will be run by Prodrive.

The Aston Martin company is now owned by the Ford Motor Company but the Le Mans programme is costing the twitchy Detroit giant nothing as all the risks have been taken on by Prodrive, the payback being that the company will be able to sell roadgoing versions of the DBR9 if the racing cars are a success. Prodrive has such a record of success in all forms of racing and rallying that Ford decided that it was a risk worth taking.

Aston Martin won Le Mans in 1959 with Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby driving.

Prodrive is well-prepared for its programme as it built, developed and ran the successful Ferrari 550 Maranellos which have enjoyed such success in ALMs and won the GTS class at Le Mans in 2003.