Featured

Spa-Francorchamps’ new look

© Planetlemans - Gerlach Delissen

Preparations for this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours are well underway for the Barazi-Epsilon team and the number 32 Gulf-sponsored Barazi-Epsilon Zytek 07S has had a very positive run-up to the race itself.

© Planetlemans - Gerlach Delissen

After scoring its first points in the Le Mans Series at the Valencia race in May, the Team’s focus shifted immediately towards the season’s blue-ribbon event.

,The first major outing was at the home of the French Grand Prix, Magny Cours where the team had a potential two days of testing lined up. In the event, on day one, the Gulf-Zytek ran with no problems and within 1.5 seconds of the LMP1 Peugeots which have been the overall pacesetters in the LMS, and which were also testing at the circuit. The team decided that it had achieved all of its aims from the test at the end of that day and they returned to base to give themselves the maximum time to begin preparing the car for the official Le Mans test.

This took place on Sunday June 3rd and once again the powder blue and orange machine, driven by Juan Barazi, Michael Vergers and Karim Ojjeh, proved to be the car to beat in LMP2, heading the timesheets for the category.

Gulf driver, Karim Ojjeh, gives a personal insight into the day:
"I took the start of the test session on Sunday. It was great being back on the track, but because 80% is either a national road and/or never used during the year (such as the Porsche S-curves) the track was extremely dirty. Actually, before leaving the pits Michael Vergers warned me not to stay behind any cars, because I would get ‘sand-blasted.’ That is exactly what happened. You should have seen the state of my helmet after the morning testing session! My session went well, realising the 3rd best time in our category when I pitted.

"It was just a matter of time during the day before the track got faster and faster. Juan went out and did a very good job, prompting the car into the 3 mins 46 secs, which was great. Then Michael went out, and managed to pull, for the first time in LMP2 history, a time under the 3 mins 40 secs! It was extraordinary.

"In the morning, the car was good to drive, but we made a couple changes to the car for the afternoon session. I again started. On my last out lap, I managed a 3.47.00 flat, which was 8 seconds faster than my best time last year. Juan went out, managed to pull a 3.47.50. (Both Juan and I were running on medium tyres) Michael went out to finish the session on soft tyres. He was able to improve his time by only three tenths of a second. HOWEVER, had it not been for a back marker, we would have finished 1.8 seconds faster - with a 3.37.20 - on soft tyres. Michael was on another planet!"

In fact, Michael Vergers recorded an identical time (right down to the 1000th of a second!) to the second LMP2 Zytek that is running at Le Mans, a 3.39.016.

The next LMP2 car was some 1.6 seconds behind the two Zyteks. The team is, therefore, very optimistic going into Le Mans week itself and with some justification.

© Planetlemans - Gerlach Delissen

Gulf Oil International Brand Manager, Aakash Andrews looks forward to the festival of motorsport that is Le Mans. "Obviously, we are hoping for a good week for all involved with Gulf at Le Mans. The car has again demonstrated its pace and we now hope for the reliability to match."

"Gulf’s heritage is embedded in Le Mans. This year we have Gulf affiliates flying in from as far afield as Finland, Saudi Arabia and Japan to be here. I am looking forward to welcoming them and to, what I hope will be a great week of motor sport."

For those unable to attend Le Mans, there are several ways of keeping up to date with what is happening throughout the week leading up to the race and, of course, during the race itself.

Motors TV, in Europe, is again broadcasting for almost eighty hours during Le Mans Week and their coverage will include Scrutineering (where the cars are checked over technically) on Monday and Tuesday, Qualifying on Wednesday and Thursday, the Drivers Parade on Friday and full race coverage (including the build up to the start) from Saturday lunch time.

Radio Le Mans - the official English language radio station of the race is available throughout race week via its website: http://www.radiolemans.com and an enhanced radio service - including multi-webcam is available on subscription through the official Le Mans website’s club area: http://www.club24web.com. General Le Mans information is also available from Le Mans’ official main website : http://www.lemans.org.

Credit: Gulf Motorsport

,

© Planetlemans - Gerlach Delissen

© Planetlemans - Gerlach Delissen