FIA World Endurance Championship star Elton Julian helped pave the way for teammates Christian Zugel and Ricardo Gonzalez to make their debuts at the Le Mans 24 Hours on 16-17 June in Greaves Motorsport’s LMP2-class Zytek-Nissan at the annual test day for the French endurance classic.
During the morning, Elton worked with the team to overcome issues including a puncture, telemetry gremlins, and a balky starter motor. The afternoon session saw the Florida-based racer make the most of 370-kilometer old tires to set an impressive lap of 3m44.625s – good enough for fourth in the 20-strong class at the time. That cleared the way for Zugel and Gonzalez to enjoy trouble-free runs in the number 41 car on their way to meeting the 10-lap minimum required to qualify for the race.
“Managing that time on such old tires while still working on the set-up gives me a lot of confidence for the race,” said Julian. “The car’s already working well enough to allow Christian and Ricardo to get to grips with the circuit, and it should only get better next week.”
The Greaves team, which claimed LMP2 honors at Le Mans along with the Le Mans Series class title last year, are also fielding a second entry at La Sarthe. Former Grand Prix pilot Martin Brundle – victorious at Le Mans in 1990 – and his son, Alex, will co-drive with Spaniard Lucas Ordóñez, winner of the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy competition in 2009 and LMP2 runner-up at Le Mans in 2011. The number 42 machine benefitted from a problem-free day to end up with a fastest time of 3m43.083s on new tires.
Elton is returning to Le Mans for the first time since 2005, when he was 7th overall and highest-placed rookie in the Racing for Holland Dome-Judd LMP1 partnered by former winner Jan Lammers and John Bosch. He also set the team’s fastest practice and race laps that year.
“2005 was my first race after six years out of the cockpit, and now seven years later I’m enjoying my first- ever full season as a pro driver,” Julian said. “Returning to Le Mans with the support of Christian Zugel and a great team like Greaves really puts the seal on my comeback. Adding in the growth of DragonSpeed, this is the best time of my racing career and I’m really looking forward to helping the team score a great result at Le Mans.”
Elton will also be sporting the logos of two new sponsors for the first time at Le Mans, RVCA action sportswear (rvca.com) and VonZipper sunglasses (vonzipper.com), both brands backing DragonSpeed as well as his WEC driving program.
Source : Elton Julian