Aubervilliers, 7 June 2012. With a long-held and well-established reputation for high performance and reliability, the international lubricant company Motul is held in high esteem in the world of endurance racing and the greatest test of both man and machine is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the ‘crown jewel’ of international sports prototype and GT racing.
At this year’s 80th edition of the world’s most renowned sports car race, Motul will be represented across all four classes of competition through its technical support of no less than ten different teams. Taking place on 16/17th June on the 13,629 km track which is made up largely of public roads, Motul will be looking to not just match but improve upon the two class victories gained in 2011.
The recently announced technical partnership with the British engine company, Zytek, is an extension of Motul’s association with Nismo Japan, the motorsport arm of the Nissan Motor Company. Zytek is one of two European distributors of the LMP2 Nissan engine, and six Nissan-powered LMP2 entries will benefit from Motul’s products at Le Mans. The French-based lubricant specialist and Japanese motor manufacturer have been working on the development of the VK45 engine, as used in the Japanese Super GT championship.
Motul will once again be associated with the legendary Pescarolo name in the lighter-weight, higher-powered LMP1 class. Led by four-time Le Mans winner Henri Pescarolo, the team will be amongst those heading the charge for the non-diesel-powered entries with its Pescarolo-Judd and Dome-Judd cars. La Sarthe driver Sébastien Bourdais will be joined by fellow former Peugeot Sport driver Nicolas Minassian and Japanese driver Seiji Ara in the Dome-Judd, while the all French line-up of Emmanuel Collard, Jean-Christophe Bouillon and Stuart Hall will be piloting the all-new Pescarolo 03 Judd.
Motul-supported Greaves Motorsport are returning to defend their 2011 LMP2 class victory with two Zytek Z11SN-Nissan entries, featuring former Jaguar Le Mans winner and F1 driver Martin Brundle alongside his son, Alex, amongst the international driver line up. The extremely popular and competitive LMP2 class will also feature five further teams exclusively using Motul products: the Spa 6-hour class winning Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan, piloted by Sam Hancock, Simon Dolan and Haruki Kurosawa will be racing for victory alongside the Status Grand Prix Lola Judd, which will be making its Le Mans debut, while Silverstone FIA WEC podium finisher Pecom Racing has moved to Oreca-Nissan power, the same combination used by Thiriet by TDS Racing and the current WEC LMP2 leader : The ADR-Delta Team.
In the production-led GT categories, Motul is represented by some of the most experienced and successful teams and drivers in the category. Long-time partner and 2011 GTE-Am winning team Larbre Compétition will be campaigning a Corvette C6R with Patrick Bornhauser, Pedro Lamy and Julien Canal aiming for class honours in the gentlemen-driver category. JMB Racing and Luxury Racing will both be competing in Ferrari 458 Italia GTs against Larbre for that class win, while Luxury’s second Ferrari will be a strong contender for a win in the professional-driver GTE-Pro class.
Within the 300V Motul product range, the oil dedicated to racing, the “300V Le Mans” lubricant was developed specially to deal with high-performance endurance engines. Endurance racing thus occupies a vital place in Motul’s motorsport strategy and it is this product which will play a vital role in the teams’ attack on the twice-round-the-clock event.
Reinforcing its presence in endurance racing, the company has renewed its commercial contract with the ACO and visitors to the Le Mans track will see Motul colours prominently displayed on the “Raccordement” corner. A film about Motul’s 300V product will be shown on the 10 giant screens positioned around the track during the race, and all of the 28 grid girls will be wearing Motul’s famous and very recognisable red and white colours.
Photo Credits: David Reygondeau
