Essex Invest factory Zytek a force to be reckoned with at first official LMES testing

Hayanari Shimoda sets third fastest lap overall, as team positions itself for an assault on the 2005 LMES.The Essex Invest factory Zytek Team demonstrated the seriousness of its 2005 LMES challenge during official testing at the Paul Ricard circuit at the weekend, prior to the first round of the Le Mans Endurance Series in Spa on 15th/16th April. The Zytek team joined the other LMP1 (Le Mans Prototype) entries – the first time all this year’s cars have been seen together - to test the performance of the newly refined 04S sportscar and clock some impressive lap times.

With a new driver partnership of John Nielsen, Casper Elgaard and Hayanari Shimoda at the wheel, the team covered 900km on the track over the two day test. Setting out to display the car’s capability this year, Shimoda set Zytek’s fastest lap time of 1:39.868, the third fastest time of all the 23 cars on the track over the two days. Nielsen and Elgaard, both drivers in the Danish Touring Car Championship, are new to the 04S, and are most enthusiastic about the car’s potential this season.

Team boss Trevor Foster feels the car is in good shape for the start of the season, “We’ve done a lot of development work on the car over the winter. The regulations have changed this year, with smaller air intake restrictors on the engine, and we are carrying 20kg extra ballast” he says. “The rule changes could actually do us a favour, as our quick, agile car should run really well in the new configuration.”

Following the successful testing, the team is now finalising the preparation of its 04S sportscar for the Spa 1000km endurance race in April.