Care Racing Development, the sports car endurance racing company whose Ferrari won the GTS category of last year's Le Mans 24 Hours race, will once again be calling upon the racing services of Prodrive - one of the world's leading motorsport and automotive technology businesses - to return to Le Mans to operate two of the five entries awarded by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest.

The British company has designed, built and developed nine Ferrari 550 Maranellos over the last three years, and was one of two teams which regularly raced cars on behalf of Care Racing during 2003. One of the many successes enjoyed by the Prodrive Care team was victory at Le Mans, which brought with it guaranteed entry to this year's event.

In order to comply fully with the ACO's stringent entry regulations, set in place because of the overwhelming demand for places to the world's most prestigious sports car race, it became clear to Care Racing that Prodrive would be the team with which two of its cars should be placed for an attack on GTS honours in June.

Although Prodrive - due to other business commitments - had not planned to take part in any Ferrari racing programmes this year, other than in a supporting technical role for Care's customer teams, Technical Director - Race Team, George Howard-Chappell, was enthusiastic about the company's return to Le Mans.

"I am very pleased to be asked by Care to run the cars again for the 24 Hour race, and particularly looking forward to racing the Corvettes again. We know the challenge will be much harder this year, from a competition point of view as well as the technical challenge of building and supporting so many cars within the programme, but we are fully confident that our ultra-professional team of people will handle it all extremely well."

The driver line-up will be Tomas Enge, Peter Kox and Alain Menu in one car and Colin McRae, Rickard Rydell and Darren Turner in the other. The blend of the drivers' experience with the Ferrari 550, Le Mans, speed and versatility promises to provide the team with the basis for a strong challenge for GTS honours.

BMS Scuderia Italia and Care Racing have also been awarded entries to this year's race, courtesy of their respective victories in the FIA GT Championship and November's opening round of the Le Mans Endurance Series on the Le Mans Bugatti circuit. Further details about the take-up and operation of these entries will be announced very soon.