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Why Audi's return heralds a new halcyon age for sportscars

OPINION: The news that Audi will return to Le Mans means we'll at last get to see the fight promised in 2012 against Peugeot and Toyota. It also gives LMDh a tangible form, which could open the floodgates for more like-minded marques to follow suit

Given the crisis that blights our world today, I'm sure I've not been alone in wishing for a time machine to whirl me back to happier times. My dreams came true on Monday, at least those for the discipline of the sport I love, when Audi announced its return to frontline endurance racing. It felt like I'd been dumped back in the winter of 2011-12, a time when we were relishing a three-way battle between the German manufacturer, Peugeot and Toyota in the born-again World Endurance Championship coming on stream in the year ahead.

That was an exciting time for international sportscar racing. We had Audi and Peugeot, who'd been at it hammer and tongs at the Le Mans 24 Hours and then the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup for six seasons, and another grandee of the endurance world in Toyota coming to the LMP1 party in 2012 for some development races ahead of a full campaign the following year.

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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.