He could have taken a rain check. Colin Kolles could easily have cried off this year, blaming Covid-19 or simply a need to concentrate on the Hypercar that ByKolles are busy finalising at their workshop in Greding, Germany. Everyone would have understood. But it was never an option for Dr Kolles. It never even crossed his mind. And should you happen to mention it to him, he almost takes offence. “I always said I’d be here and I never go back on my word. Our Hypercar project is on track and we had no reason not to be here. And even if we were really behind schedule, we would have come anyway because it’s Le Mans!” That’s Colin Kolles for you, he's not one to make concessions. “And now that we’ve got a Gibson engine, we have far fewer reliability issues. This year, we’re clearly aiming to cross the finish line.” That would be a first for the Enso CLM P1 as it’s had a rocky ride over the years and would deserve to finish on a high note.

“It’s been our testing ground”, says Kolles. “We’ve learned a lot with it. It has come a long way since the early days and the upgrades we’ve made to it have been useful for developing our Hypercar, the first photos of which have just been released. We wanted to bring the car to Le Mans to present it, but we fell behind schedule with the monocoque and didn’t quite manage to make it up. It was close, but it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that the car exists!” It will come in three versions: road, competition and LMP1. “I’ve always dreamed of making a road car that can be used for racing without requiring expensive modifications. This is it.”

While some may have been skeptical of Dr Kolles’s ability to deliver the Hypercar, his gamble is clearly paying off. It takes courage to embark on such an endeavour without the clout of a big car manufacturer, but the former boss of HRT, Jordan, Spyker and Force India isn’t lacking in that department. “I was told that I must be mad to do such a thing”, he smiles, “but don’t you need to be mad anyway to do motor racing and run a race team? I’m a much smaller car manufacturer than the likes of Toyota, but I have an outfit in its own right that will use the great platform that Le Mans provides to promote its road cars.”

Regardless of the health and economic crisis sweeping the planet, Kolles still believes. The man has faith. He takes his phone out from his pocket, containing pictures of the car to be presented later today which the manufacturer is pinning its hopes on. He has a proud look in his eye though he tries his hardest to keep a poker face. It wouldn’t do to show a chink in the tough image he likes to portray. And yet it takes a passion for the beauty of the sport and the challenge to be here this weekend in spite of everything. If his homegrown Hypercar stirs up the same level of emotion, he’ll already have won the best part of his bold gamble.