Photo : Pool ACO - ACO / Nikon
The No.38 Jota Zytek Z11SN-Nissan driven by Sam Hancock, Simon Dolan and Haruki Kurosawa this year.
The British squad moves back to prototypes this year with their old supplier Zytek after a less than successful year with Aston Martin in 2011. Virtually untested, the car was quick at Le Castellet and then took class honours at Spa in a close finish with the ADR-Delta Oreca.
Simon Dolan drove superbly at Spa and, although currently listed as a "silver" amateur driver, he may soon be turning "gold"! The combination of he and professional drivers Hancock and Kurosawa San is very strong, and Dolan can't wait to start racing: “I think we’re as prepared as we can be although we haven’t done that much testing ironically. We didn’t get the car until almost the day of the Ricard race but the pace was good apart from the small contact that Sam had. Spa worked very well for us, we’re feeling fit and we’ve had a bit of wet weather testing so all in all we’re ready for the challenge. For the race I think it’s a matter of playing your own game but, on the flip side, it’s going to be like GTE-Pro where you have to push from the start. If you don’t do that you’re probably not going to have a result as there’s so many good drivers and this year the cars are particularly reliable as well. I think we’re going to be pushing a little bit!”
Photo: CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES (LE MANS, SARTHE), SCRUTINEERING, 11TH JUNE 2012. The Spa 6 Hours-winning Jota Zytek.