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The 2011 Sportscar season review

The 2011 sportscar season was a classic, with close action across all three Le Mans-affiliated championships and a memorable 24 Hours at which Audi triumphed over great rival Peugeot. Gary Watkins reviews the year

Gary Watkins Dec 20, 2011, 11:47 AM

This will be remembered as a seminal season for sportscar racing. And not because there was some amazing racing between Peugeot and Audi every time they went head to head on the track. It was the year that the discipline got back a proper long-distance world championship for the first time in 20 seasons. It was called the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, and before summer had fully arrived came the news that this world championship in all but name would get the title it always deserved for the 2012.

The first and now only full ILMC (the 2010 series was just three end-of-season races) might get lost in the history books if the new FIA World Endurance Championship is the runaway success that everyone is hoping for and almost as many are predicting. That would be a shame for two reasons: firstly because of its importance in the creation, or rather recreation, of the WEC; and secondly because of the quality of racing up front between the turbodiesel factory squads.

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.