Toyota is going back to Le Mans this year and it's taking its chances with the first ever hybrid entry in what I think is the world's most important race.

The 24 Hours of Le is the world's oldest "endurance" sports car race and for my money the most important race of them all because going flat out all day and all night tests man and machine like no other race. Over the 24 hours top competitors will cover more than 5,000 km; that's six times longer than the Indianapolis 500 and about 18 times longer than a Formula One Grand Prix.

Diesels have been winning Le Mans for years with ten wins for Audi's R8 and R18 models in the past 12 years, interrupted by single victories for a Bentley ( based on the Audi) and for Peugeot's diesel-engined 908.

This year Toyota is running a gasoline-hybrid called the TS030 HYBRID. The 'TS' stands for 'Toyota Sport' similar to Toyota's 1990s Le Mans cars. This makes Toyota the first manufacturer to use a hybrid in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Maybe they're thinking this will help them sell a few more Priuses.

At about the same time Toyota announced it was in, Peugeot announced it was pulling out. Suffering poor sales Peugeot thought it could spend its money better elsewhere. That means Toyota will be gunning for the almost unbeatable Germans with their big Audi TDI. It's too bad for French racing fans. About a quarter of a million people show up for the race every year but now the French have lost their national favourite.

The Toyota TS030 will have a 3.4-litre V8 gasoline engine linked to a race-ready hybrid system designed to deliver maximum performance. It uses capacitors – not batteries to store the juice. Like hybrid cars on the road, the TS030 hybrid generates energy from braking. It can operate in electric-only mode, but will probably only do so while leaving the pits. It has a brand new carbon fibre chassis that has been extensively tested already, including hundreds of kilometres of running at night.

It's next to impossible to win Le Mans the first time out with a new car. Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Toyota Racing team president says, "Our target this year is to show the performance level of our car and in particular the THS-R powertrain. Hybrid is a core technology of Toyota, so it is important to demonstrate this in a motorsport arena." So maybe they are doing this to sell more Pruises.

Two of the new TS race cars will race at Le Mans in June will also race in further rounds to be confirmed later. That means you might be able to see them race at Mosport in July as part of the American Le Mans series.

Toyota has now sold more than 3 million hybrid vehicles, mostly on demand for the Prius, the world's first mass-produced hybrid car that arrived in 1997. Audi certainly increased the visibility and credibility of its diesel engine cars with the great success of the TDI at Le Mans. Maybe Toyota can do something similar with hybrids at Le Mans. Hybrid sales seem to be stuck permanently at only 2 to 3 % of sales in North America. Could Le Mans lead to a hybrid sales break through? Who knows – first they have to win.