Bentley Le Mans winner Guy Smith will be part of the 15-strongteam of UK cars heading to Belgium to compete in the Spa 25hour Uniroyal Team Challenge race (July 9-11).

Smith, who co-drove to second place at Le Mans this year withthe British Audi team, will be part of BBC Top Gear magazineteam taking part in this massive event - with 125 identicalcars expected on the grid.

All the cars competing are Beetle replicas powered by a 1.8litre modified VW engine and mounted in a strong tubular steelchassis. With cars competing from the UK, France, Belgium,Italy and Holland, and drivers from many countries includingthe USA, it is a truly international race.

Smith teams up with journalists Alistair Weaver and FergusCampbell in the Uniroyal supported Top Gear car. Furthermagazine competition will come from the Auto Express car, alsobacked by Uniroyal.

Another Le Mans competitor, Nigel Greensall, will drive in theChad Racing car, while Ferrari racers Ted Reddick and LesCharneca will be in one of the many rental cars from the UKprovided by JPR Motorsport, the series UK distributor.

UK series director Grahame Butterworth teams up with his son -a former top karter - and pilot Nick Pascoe. Butterworth willalso be driving a special camera car with unique wiring forlive commentary on the race from the driver's seat for actionon the Race World programme on Sky Sports.

Says Grahame: "We have doubled our UK entry here this yearwhich is excellent. We have a fleet of vehicles and more than100 people going over so it is a major exercise. I hope wecome away with some good results."

Uniroyal Tyres are a major backer of the series throughoutEurope and provide the road going RainSport 1 tyres used byevery competitor. It is the largest endurance racing seriesin Europe.

The race starts on Saturday July 10 at 4pm and finishes thenext day at 5pm.