Westover Sports Cars Andy Bennett is playing a vital role as Morgan returns to the Le Mans 24 Hour Endurance race for the first time since 1962 with the De Walt/Race Sports Salisbury 2002 Aero 8 GTN Le Mans entry.

Bennett joined Westover Sports Cars, in Blandford, in 1995 predominantly to look after customers TVRs during the week and to fine tune the Group's TVR Tuscan in the Tuscan Challenge race series at weekends.

Since Westover Sports Cars acquired the Morgan dealership for the region, Andy has been working on customers' Morgans. When the group became involved in the Morgan Aero 8 GTN Project, initially through drivers Steve Hyde and Richard Stanton, the job took on a new dimension.

Hyde from Winchester and Stanton from Salisbury successfully drove the TVR Tuscans for the Westover Group in last season's British GTO Championship, picking up several podium finishes.

When Morgan asked Westover for additional support to make their Le Mans challenge a reality they jumped at the chance.

Christopher Lawrence, Morgan's chief development engineer and driver of the last Morgan to participate at Le Mans, 40 years ago, asked for technical assistance and Westover agreed to lend them Andy Bennett, with his fantastic track record of delivering cars 'race ready'.

He has been at Morgan's famous factory in Malvern for two weeks and travelled to Silverstone for an hour's testing before it took seventh place the British GT Championship round there.

The car has since undergone endurance testing before being set up for Le Mans at the weekend.

Bennett says: "This kind of time commitment goes with the territory if you're involved in motor racing and my wife has become used to me disappearing off all over the place to keep cars on the move!

"It's really exciting being involved in a project like this and, despite the time constraints in getting things up and running, we're all confident that the Aero 8 GTN will perform well at Le Mans and begin another chapter in the traditions of the Morgan marque."

Lawrence said: "Andy's simply superb. He's come in and made a vital contribution to the effort and when the car lines up at Le Mans ready to start the race, it will be in no small way down to the commitment and tenacity he has shown.

"We're very grateful to Westover for letting us have Andy's expertise on tap to ensure our challenge can be maintained."