LE MANS ENDURANCE SERIES – ISTANBUL
Disappointment in Turkey for Tom and the Zytek team as their 4th place finish wasn’t enough to claim the series title. Terrible weather, the wrong choice on tyres and a puncture all contributed to the difficulties they had to go through at the Grand Prix track near Istanbul in the fifth and final LMES round.The Zytek team arrived in Turkey not necessarily needing to win the event to secure the title, but knowing they had to perform well and not be beaten by more than one place by the French Pescarolo team, their only rival for overall victory in the series.
Tom was confident going into this race and his optimism was shared by the Zytek team as Saturday practice saw Tom and Casper Elgaard, drafted into the team as a stand-in for the not quite 100% fit Hayanari Shimoda, set the second fastest times. Slower than their French rivals, but only by a fraction. This was repeated in qualifying, with the Pescarolo taking pole by a whisker from the Zytek, which would also start from the front row. These times were set when the conditions were better and drier, it was a different situation when the weather deteriorated and it was clear the Pescarolo team had the advantage in the wet.
Unfortunately for the British Team, race day brought heavy rain.
Tom had to face the start in atrocious conditions and did a great job, settling into 2nd place, hounding the Zytek team’s main rival for the LMES title, the French Pescarolo entry. Tom drove a double stint and had to put up with progressively worse understeer, as the soft wet tyres were taken well beyond their competitive limits as Tom explains;
“ We were told by Michelin that the tyres would be ok for a double stint, but that simply wasn’t the case. The car was alright for the first half of my stint. I was being quite cautious with the conditions as bad as they were, I didn’t want a repeat of Silverstone. Then the understeer just got worse and worse. Things were not helped by the fact that we lost radio contact between the car and the pits from about 10 laps into the race and I couldn’t tell the team about the problems. So when I pitted for fuel we should have replaced the tyres as well. “
Zytek engineer Tim Holloway decided to keep Tom on the original set of wets and from soon after Tom had rejoined the race it was clear this had been a bad decision.
Tom struggled on to the end of his double stint and was pleased to have only dropped to 5th place considering the difficulties he faced. When the team did replace the tyres at the end of Tom’s laps it was clear how hard it must have been to drive as the front tyres were almost completely slick, no tread and no grip in the wet.
Casper Elgaard took over the car at half distance and with fresh tyres did a good job getting the Zytek back up to 4th place. Unfortunately things were not going the team’s way and Casper had to make an unscheduled pit stop after picking up a puncture. A lot of time was lost and as Hayanari Shimoda jumped in to finish the race, all hope of victory and the Championship title had vanished. Hayanari did gain back some of the ground lost due to the puncture and he brought the Zytek home in 4th place.
The result was good enough to secure 2nd place in the Le Mans Endurance Series and guarantee the team an entry for next year’s 24-hour classic. Tom summed up their feelings;
“ Well we came here to try and win the series and it wasn’t to be. The weather conditions all week have gone against us here. The Pescarolo car is built to the latest regulations and is allowed to run traction control, but the Zytek is an older design and we can’t run it. Traction control is such an advantage with these conditions so I don’t think we had a chance unless it dried up. “
“ At the end of the day Zytek has got it’s guaranteed entry to Le Mans and that is something that we all had been aiming to achieve back at the beginning of the season. I know the results we have got this year, especially Hayanari and my win at Nurburgring has helped achieve that. It’s been a brilliant experience for me to do these, my first ever sportscar races with Zytek. It has taught me so much and I know I’m a better driver because of the experience. I’m happy to have been part of the team that has finished runner-up in the Championship.”
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