NURBURGRING, Germany, 13 July 2007 — The No. 32 Gulf sponsored Barazi-Epsilon Zytek 07S took its first LMP2 podium of the year at the Nurburgring 1,000 km, round 3 of the 2007 Le Mans Series recently. The blue and orange machine, driven by Juan Barazi, Karim Ojjeh and Michael Vergers finished a close runner up – less than a minute behind the RML Lola — in one of the most strongly contested LMP2 battles ever. Team co-owner, Juan Barazi took the car successfully through morning warm-up and the car’s pace in race set-up made it evident that it would be right in the thick of the action. Juan also drove at the start of the race and completed two steady stints in the car, with no serious drama, handing the Gulf liveried machine over to Karim Ojjeh, in sixth place for the category.
A further two rapid and consistent hours of driving followed from Karim, so that when he came in for the driver change at four hours, the Gulf car had moved up from 17th overall to 14th and from 6th to 3rd in LMP2. The situation in the group was very very close with, at this stage, the first four cars being covered by less than two laps.
The team’s strategy was to give Michael Vergers the final two hours of the race, with the thinking being that, as the known pace-man, he would be able to distance the No. 32 Gulf machine from those behind him and — providing the car was in good shape — even perhaps make a late charge for LMP2 victory. This almost paid off as, lap by lap, Michael drew ever closer to the RML Lola, which had led LMP2 from the start. Unlapping himself from the Lola, the Team — and excited Gulf guests — watched the TV screens and timing monitors as the gap continued to shrink. In the end, the margin of victory was around fifty seconds. It had looked likely all weekend that the Nurburgring was going to prove to extremely competitive and indeed it was with, incredibly, ten of the eleven LMP2 cars finishing the race. It was also always going to be a very tough race, with fifty cars starting on a tight and twisty circuit, with limited opportunities for overtaking. Ojjeh, who offers his insight into how the team achieved this fine result, said: “We knew it was going to be a hard race. We all had to concentrate extremely intensely throughout, on not making a mistake. There was lots of overtaking necessary and you had to be really careful to pick the right opportunity to do this. We had a few minor problems along the way – perhaps the most difficult was the car accumulating rubber under the wheels which made for lots of vibration in the cockpit. But overall, I am very very happy for us to have finished on the podium and I feel sure will have an extremely competitive car for the coming races.”
Gulf Oil International Brand Marketing Manager Aakash Andrews said: “Gulf is delighted to be able to congratulate the Barazi-Epsilon team on a superb showing this weekend. It is all the more notable because, in real terms, the team had only five days to rebuild the car after its accident at Le Mans. This fine result, therefore, is a just reward for all of the hard work they have put in, not just in the last two weeks, but throughout the year so far and we hope for more reasons to celebrate over the remainder of the season.” In LMGT2, the Gulf supported Ferrari 430GT of Icepol Racing achieved its aim of a second consecutive points finish with Yves Lambert, Christian Lefort and Stephane Lemeret taking two points for seventh in category. Gulf had further points success in LMGT2, with the latest team to carry Gulf branding, the Ferrari 430 of GPC Sport, driven by Matteo Bobbi, Alessandro Bonetti and Fabrizio de Simone, coming home fourth.
The Le Mans Series next reconvenes at the famous Spa circuit in Belgium from Aug. 17-19.
