Zytek Imola ILMC Event Race Report

Yet Another Win In 2011 For Zytek
Greaves Motorsport takes third victory from four starts

Zytek continued its victorious ways at Imola today. Le Mans victor Greaves Motorsport again took the LMP2 class for its third win of the season using the Repton-based manufacturer’s Z11SN chassis. The trio of Tom Kimber-Smith, Olivier Lombard and Karim Ojjeh had to fight hard for the victory, coming from fifth LMP2 place on the grid. An early, extra pit stop to overcome tyre pick-up put them at an initial disadvantage. However, in the last half hour they took the lead, eventually finishing on 204 laps, two ahead of their nearest rival.

#41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan: Karim Ojjeh, Tom Kimber-Smith, Olivier Lombard, #15 Oak Racing Oak Pescarolo - Judd: Guillaume Moreau, Pierre Ragues

Photo by: DPPI

Although there was a late challenge to their dominance, the LMP2 cars powered by the Zytek/Nissan VK45DE engines were again the stars of the class. The pole winning TDS Racing Oreca-Nissan 03 set the initial pace. By the end of the first hour the hard charging Jody Firth had opened up an impressive 30 seconds lead. Teammate, Mathias Beche took over where Jody had left off and pulled out to over a minute ahead of the Greaves Zytek-Nissan, which had already moved up into second place.

Long, enforced pit stops were to drop the TDS Oreca out of contention in the fourth hour. By now the Greaves Motorsport Zytek had fallen back a place and the Nissan-engined cars had lost the lead for the first time. Behind the Z11SN was another Oreca-Nissan, the Signatech car that had earlier been delayed in the pits.

After strong stints by Tom and Olivier, Karim took over the wheel of the Zytek for the final hours, continuing to keep the first place car in his sights. With less than 30 minutes to go the leader ran into trouble and first place was back with the Zytek/Nissan cars. The Signatech Oreca-Nissan of Franck Mailleux, Lucas Ordonez and Soheil Ayari also moved up to take second, still a couple of laps behind the Zytek.

The LMP2 class win in the Six Hours of Imola is the third of the year for Greaves Motorsport following on from, not only a class victory, but also third overall at Paul Ricard and the historic victory at Le Mans. The Zytek/Nissan engine has also won the LMP2 category in every single European race for Le Mans Prototypes held this year. With just two rounds left of the Le Mans Series, Greaves Motorsport is now in a strong position to become the second Zytek team to take the LMP2 championship.

by: zytek