Mansell to Race in GP Masters

The 1992 World Champion will take part in the debut race at Kyalami, South Africa, on November 13th and has reached agreement with the organisers to compete for the first three seasons of the catagory.

Grand Prix Masters is a self-styled "Superstars" of motorsport and has already attracted F1 legends including World Champions Alain Prost, Emerson Fittipaldi and Alan Jones, Grand Prix winners Rene Arnoux and Riccardo Patrese, and other former F1 stars including Stefan Johansson, Andrea de Cesaris, Jan Lammers and Ivan Capelli.

"In one word, the Masters is going to be an awesome challenge," Mansell told Autosport. "It's back to the old days in terms of racing. The cars will all be able to run closely, we'll be changing gear and it will be a level playing field.

"I think it will be more like when I came into Formula One, when the power levels of the cars were all pretty similar."

The Kyalami race is due to be followed by six to eight further events in the early months of 2006.

The Masters series, which will run cars based on the 1999 Reynard Champ Car, powered by a 600bhp, 3.3-litre Nicholson-Mclaren V8 engine, is the brainchild of Scott Poulter.

Poulter said: "Nigel has been presented a with a number of offers over the years but this is the first one that he has decided is truly credible. He has been attracted by the prospect of the close racing we believe these cars will produce."

This week's Autosport magazine includes extensive coverage of Mansell's return to racing, including his thoughts and his hopes of a British race.