Silverstone: Johnny Mowlem race report

MOWLEM, TEAM LNT ZYTEK FINISH 1OTH AT SILVERSTONE

LONDON (Sept. 13, 2010) -- Johnny Mowlem and his Team LNT teammates made lemonade out of sour lemons and salvaged a 10th place finish during the Silverstone 1,000 Le Mans Series race at the Silverstone racing circuit.

Mowlem was at the wheel of the team's Ginetta Zytek prototype racing machine, running sixth overall, but then whilst lapping a slower car, it made contact with his right rear, sending Mowlem spinning into a gravel trap.

A promising run turned into a frustrating thrash and dash for the team, which had started the day with high hopes.

"I'm so disappointed that, after having driven so conservatively in traffic bearing in mind the length of this race and having been very sporting with all the GT cars in particular, that on this occasion a stupid mistake by a fellow competitor ruined a great run for us." said Mowlem. "It's not just about the LMP's being respectful of the GT's, it has to work both ways in terms of both classes given each other some racing room."

The globe-trotting Mowlem was racing in his home country for a change and that made the frustration all the greater, although he did benefit from being able to have a number of his friends and family up at Silverstone to support him.

"But, at the same time, I'm really pleased with how we ran in the race and how good the car was. (Co-drivers) Tony Burgess and Chris McMurry also did a fantastic job and looked to be having a great time as well! Mechanically, the Ginetta Zytek ran like clockwork and the whole team did a terrific job, particularly bearing in mind this was the first race for both of them and the car in over a year."

Mowlem qualified the car on the sixth row, but admitted that he hadn't been able to do the car justice, having encountered traffic during all of his laps in qualifying. But he moved his way up through the field at the start of the race and approaching the end of his double stint was running a strong sixth overall, and only had a handful of laps left in his stint when he encountered the back marker.

"Unfortunately, whilst lapping the number 89 back marker Ferrari, I got hit and spun into the gravel trap at Luffield corner. The resulting delays dropped us from 6th to 43rd, but Team LNT did a fantastic job to keep the car going for the remaining three and a half hours of the race. Tony and Chris did great double stints to get the LMP1 Ginetta Zytek back up to 22nd overall and 10th in class by race end."

Mowlem is now due to return to testing duties with Lotus for their GT development program, and is also due to return to the USA, to test the LMP1 Autocon Lola again, in preparation for Petit Le Mans.

-source: jm