Masters Historic Racing Limited has announced that it will be promoting a programme of races for Group C historic Le Mans cars during the 2011 Masters historic festival season. The first event will take place at the newly announced Catalan Classic festival on the Barcelona Grand Prix track, over the 9-10 April weekend.

Masters will be offering a number of race dates in 2011, either 4 or 5 depending upon final arrangements with circuit and event owners, for the owners of Group C (also IMSA GTP specification) cars. Owners will be invited to race at events under MHR management control during the season, and it is intended that these new Masters races will complement, not compete with, other events for similar cars run by the long-standing Group C members club.

Masters have been considering various expansion options for some time, and have now decided that these iconic 1982-1993 Group C sports cars are the best fit with the existing Masters race grids, which already cover a wide spread of competition, from 1950s touring cars to 1980s Grand Prix cars.

Many existing Masters racing members already own and race Group C cars and it is these cars which are expected to form the core of the new races, along with several cars from outside the UK which for various reason, have not raced so frequently in recent years. It is intended that these Masters Group C races will run to technical rules very similar to the existing club’s ones, so that it is possible for entrants to easily switch between organisers. However, the Sporting rules – race lengths, race operations, driver pit stops and so on - will closely follow established Masters’ practice. Along with the impending release of the full 2011 Masters calendar, the complete set of Masters Group C race dates will be announced very shortly.

In any case, the first event for the Masters Group C cars is set to be the new event at Barcelona on 9-10, with further Masters Group C races also due to be held at Masters’ other self-managed events. Ron Maydon, Masters’ founder, said: ‘We have good support behind us from a number of Group C owners for this new venture, which has been vital in setting all this in motion. We are right now about to set out on a wide European tour to meet with those many Group C owners who are looking for new opportunities to race. Naturally, any owners who currently race regularly with the existing group will be welcome to join our races whenever they wish, under the usual rules. At our major Masters race festivals, multi-car owners can enjoy maximum use of their precious racing weekends, for example now being able to run their Grand Prix cars, or their GT cars, as well as their Group C cars all at the same meeting. We have been being asked to do this for over 2 years now by many such car owners, and we look forward to some great racing from this new grid during our busy new season’.

Masters will make further announcements about some of the key Group C competing cars, and the full 2011 race calendar, very soon.