Catalunya: Zytek qualifying report

Unfulfilled Promise for Zytek Teams

The promise of yesterday's second practice session, when the Zytek 07S of Michael Vergers was fastest in class despite a broken damper, was unfulfilled during qualifying for the 1,000km of Catalunya Le Mans Series race. "We're now suffering from lots of oversteer," said Michael, lead driver for the Barazi-Epsilon team. "We've got to get back to where we are."

Michael achieved his fastest time of 1m 37.516s on his first flying lap only to run off into the gravel at Turn 3 on his second. The Dutchman then held second place in the LMP2 class for much of the session before falling back to sixth towards the end. Now the team must work anew on the set up of its 07S if it is to regain Friday afternoon's competitiveness when it was not only fastest in class but also eighth over all with a time of 1m 36.367s

Qualifying a second Zytek 07S for the new Trading Performance team was 21-year old Julien Schroyen. The young Belgian is on a steep curve this weekend, it being the first time that he has competitively driven a Le Mans prototype. Tomorrow sees his endurance race debut.

Three other Zytek ZG348-engined cars took part in qualifying for the race with the Embassy WF01s making their debut, while electrical problems limited the number of laps the equally new WR, driven by Patrice Roussel, was able to carry out.

"It was always going to be a tough weekend," said Warren Hughes, fastest of the Embassy drivers with a 1m 38.100s. "This is this the first serious outing for the WF01." However, the cars have proved reliable over the past couple of days enabling Embassy Racing to, as Warren remarks, "get through a lot of work." Warren's time was good enough for seventh in a packed LMP2 class, one place behind the fastest Zytek.

Both Warren and his team mate Jonny Kane sang the praises of the WF01's Zytek engine. It was the first time that they had experienced one of the Repton-built power units in a sportscar. "It's a good strong engine with power throughout the range," said Warren. "It's very flexible,' added Jonny.

-credit: zytek.co.uk