Crewe 28th May 2001, Team Bentley has today released the official photograph of the whole team and its two EXP Speed 8 Le Mans Prototypes. The photograph was taken on May 6 in the pitlane immediately after the Team's highly successful outing at the Le Mans test weekend where both racers showed an enviable blend of speed and reliability throughout the day's testing.

Since then the testing programme has continued unabated with the successful completion of an endurance run featuring all Team Bentley's drivers including its most recent signing, Eric Van de Poele.

The release of the photograph not only marks Bentley's return to competitive motorsport after 71 years away, but also the 80th anniversary of Bentley's first competition success. In May 1921, driving the second Bentley ever built, factory driver Frank Clement won the Whitsun Junior Sprint Handicap at Brooklands at an average of 72.5mph.

The car he drove, EXP 2, survives to this day and has recently been returned to Bentley ownership; so not only is it the oldest Bentley in the world (EXP 1 having been broken up in the 1920s), arguably it is also the most significant.