Zytek race report

Top Ten Finish for Ginetta-Zytek at Le Mans

Three Zytek engined cars in the first seven in LMP2

The Ginetta-Zytek of Team Bruichladdich has finished in the top 10 at this year's Le Mans 24-hour race while three of the top seven cars in the LMP2 category used Zytek's highly successful 3.4-litre ZG348 engine.

The leading Ginetta-Zytek, driven by Tim Greaves, Karim Ojjeh and Gary Chalandon completed 340 laps in chassis 07S-03 adding another chapter to the story of the car that finished second in class here in 2007. The enthusiastic British team was delighted to have finished a Le Mans race for the first time after a steady run for all three drivers. The team also came fifth in the LMP2 category

"Team Bruichladdich did exceptionally well to finish so high in what was, this year, a highly competitive class and in which so many of the contenders made it to the chequered flag," said Zytek Motorsport managing director Trevor Foster.

Team Bruichladdich finished two places in class ahead of the Ginetta-Zytek 09SB of Le Mans Series LMP2 champions, Quifel-ASM. The Portuguese team with drivers Olivier Pla, Miguel Amaral and Warren Hughes made a very positive start to the race and kept in touch with the class leaders until a driveshaft joint failure lost them 30 minutes in the pits. The car was then further delayed for another 45 minutes by a significant accident that necessitated a change of the front suspension and bodywork.

One place in class and 10 laps behind the Quifel-ASM Ginetta-Zytek was the third of the Zytek ZG348 engined cars, the WR LMP2008 of Tristan Gommendy, Philippe Salini and Stéphane Salini, the French team making a return to the race in which it had once been a regular feature.

Three of the four Zytek engined cars entered finished the grueling race in which only 28 of the 56 starters were still running at the end. The high profile exception was the 4.5-litre LMP1 Ginetta-Zytek 09SB of the newly formed Beechdean Mansell Motorsport team. A slow puncture just four laps into the race caused 1992 Formula One World Champion Nigel Mansell to crash sideways into the wall on the fast section between the Mulsanne and Indianapolis corners. Nigel was taken to the medical centre for checks and, therefore, although the car was not badly damaged, he was unable to drive it back to the pits to carry out the necessary repairs, thus forcing retirement.

-source: zytek