Zytek wins Spa 1000km.

The Essex Invest-backed 'works' Zytek 04S finally broke its international race duck by claiming a comfortable victory in a weather-affected Spa-Francorchamps 1000km.

With rain and thick fog dominating proceedings, the British-built prototype, driven by Danes John Nielsen and Caspar Elgaard and Japan's Hayanari Shimoda, enjoyed enough of a cushion over the chasing Pescarolo to take a 'splash-and-dash' stop for fuel, rejoining for two laps before taking the chequered flag.

The Pescarolo, which had started from pole, led early on, but the race enjoyed more than one potential winner during its six-hour duration, with misfortune hitting both the ORECA Audi R8 and Creation Autosportif DBA late on, allowing the Zytek an easier passage to victory.

The irony, of course, is that the white-and-blue 04S has been refused an entry to June's Le Mans 24 Hours...

The 'junior' prototype class was claimed by another British entry, as the Chamberlain-Synergy team gave the new Lola B05/40 its first international victory in LMP2. The team of Bob Berridge, Gareth Evans and Peter Owen finished three laps clear of the second-placed Noel del Bello Courage.

The GT1 class winner split the two LMP2 leaders, as BMS Scuderia Italia transferred its FIA GT form to the LMES, providing a debut win for the crew of Fabrizio Gollin, Miguel Ramos and Matteo Cressoni. Second in class went to the similar Ferrari 550 Maranello of the recently rebranded Convers team headed by Christophe Bouchut.

The successful British theme continued in GT2, where the TVR Tuscan T400R claimed an historic 1-2 result. After the disappointment of recent outings, Team LNT filled eighth and tenth overall, with the Hughes/Kane/Tomlinson car claiming class honours.

Low cloud shrouded the classic Spa-Francorchamps circuit throughout the six hours of competition, but failed to dampen the enthusiasm and determination on display as Pescarolo Sport, Audi Playstation Team ORECA and eventual winner Zytek Engineering fought for victory in the first of this year's five races.

Following the cancellation of the supporting British F3 races on both Saturday evening and, more importantly, Sunday morning because of the lack of visibility, the LMES
organisers had to make a tough decision, but opted to go ahead as planned, despite visibility of less than 100 metres at the top of the hill at Les Combes. A handful of heavy accidents during the six-hour race may have attracted criticism but, in truth, none could be attributed to the patchy visibility.

Tyre choice in the conditions was critical, and Pescarolo poleman Emmanuel Collard set a searing pace from the start, pulling away from Stephane Ortelli's Audi. Both were on Michelin's rain tyres, but Collard was 20secs clear after just ten laps. Nicolas Minassian, no slouch in the Creation Autosportif DBA 03S, ran steadily in third place but, on intermediate tyres, dropped 48 seconds in the same ten laps. The Frenchman, however, still managed to hold off Jan Magnussen, in the Lister Storm LMP, and Nielsen's Zytek 04S, both of which were also on intermediates.

"I knew I couldn't match the times of the leaders," Nielsen said later, "but, after 15 laps, the track dried quite a lot and I could match their times, so I knew I made the right choice. We changed to slicks later on, when we could get some heat into them, and the race came back to us."

Collard led the race for two hours, but was shadowed by Nielsen, 25 seconds back, with Ortelli regaining third place after Hiroki Kurosawa's Team Jota Zytek was taken out in a heavy accident. Antoine Gosse lost control of the JMB Ferrari 575 Maranello under braking for Les Combes and, as the Ferrari turned right, hitting the guardrail and bouncing back into the road, Kurosawa had nowhere to go.

While marshals were helping the drivers, Robert Pergl arrived at high speed, shedding bits of the Menx Racing Ferrari 550 Maranello after a similar accident, having turned right under braking and hitting the guardrail on both sides. The safety car thus controlled the field for three-quarters of an hour while the guardrail was repaired - and nicely warmed tyres went cold!

"It's always sad when an accident happens but, when it is not your fault, it's even more difficult to take," Pergl insisted, "I hit oil on the track, that's the only explanation I can give for what happened.

"I saw a yellow flag, so I slowed and wasn't pushing hard at all. It was on a dry line and I had had no problems with the car or tyres up until then. I started to brake at the
200m board, which is earlier than I usually do, and the car just completely went from under me and I was just a passenger after that."

Ortelli took over at the front in the third hour, but co-driver Jean-Marc Gounon later undid the Monegasque's good work, suffering a bizarre accident during another safety car intervention at the five-hour mark, crashing into the guardrail exiting the Bus Stop chicane, forfeiting second place to Boullion's Pescarolo as the Audi retired to the pits with a deranged front end.

"My tyres were cold after several laps behind the pace car, and I had no grip," Gounon explained sheepishly, "I tried a bit of power and just lost grip."

By now, the Pescarolo was a lap behind the Zytek Engineering entry, having lost time in the pit-lane during the safety car interval. Time was also lost sending Erik Comas out on slicks, which proved to be a poor choice in the prevailing conditions. Second position was the Le Mans team's consolation.

Martin Short's Rollcentre Racing Dallara-Judd claimed third place, the team boss joined by Rob Barff and Vanina Ickx, who completed her debut in the Le Mans Prototype category with a podium result. Ickx's performance led to Short to invite the Belgian to complete the season with the team, and drive for them at Le Mans.

"I will sign!" she responded quickly.

A further lap behind in fourth position was the Jim Gainer Dome Mugen S101-HB driven by Ryo Michigami, Juichi Wakisaka and Seiji Ara, after a steady and trouble-free run.

The Creation team looked a cert for the final podium position before its legendary bad luck intervened once again. Minassian kept the team in contention until an alternator problem caused an unscheduled pit-stop to change the offending item. Two laps down, Minassian pushed as hard as the conditions would allow and, by the time he handed over to team-mate Jamie Campbell-Walter at half distance, the car was back in contention. However, despite some fastest laps from JC-W, the team had a podium finish cruelly snatched away when a driveshaft failed just 30 minutes from the end.

"I just can't believe it - our luck just never seems to come right," Campbell-Walter sighed, "We didn't have to make another fuel stop and weren't sure if our rivals did or not. We thought we might even have got second."

The new Lola B05/40 AER LMP2 scored its first victory, winning the category in fifth place overall. Berridge, Owen and Evans amazed their Courage-mounted rivals by running two hours on each tank of fuel, and stopping only three times, while the French cars made as many as six stops.

"I just don't know how they did it," confessed Christophe Tinseau, who shared second in class with the Mecachrome V8-powered del Bello Courage C65, Christophe Pillon and Ni Amorim.

The RML Lola had also been in contention until Tommy Erdos began to experience electrical problems during the safety car period. The white, red and blue entry required the Brazilian to refire its engine after eventually stopping on track, losing it a comfortable class lead, but both Erdos and co-driver Mike Newton continued to press on, despite a puncture and further electrical gremlins costing time in the pits. The car eventually claimed fourth in class, 18th overall.

FIA GT champions BMS Scuderia Italia won the GT1 category first time out, as Gollin, Ramos and Italian F3 ace Cressoni placed sixth in the Care Racing-supported Ferrari 550 Maranello. It was an historic victory for the Pirelli-shod team, as it marked the first time than anyone other than Michelin had won the GTS/GT1 class in the LMES.

"This win came because the team worked very well," Gollin said, "Tyre choice was very important, especially at the start, and I didn't change them when I took intermediates, while Enge was on wets. We took the lead and were able to drive to the finish without too many risks."

The team's second car was delayed by a power steering failure with Christian Pescatori at the wheel, finishing third in GT1 behind the Convers Bank 550 Maranello of Bouchut, Nicolay Fomenko and Alexey Vasiliev.

Despite some setbacks on the track and in the pits, due to a faulty wheel pin, the Cirtek-run team fought back to take second as Bouchut drove for just under three hours
to put the team into contention for a podium. His two Russian co-drivers maintained position for the #67 car, with Vasiliev in particular putting in a very consistent stint.

"The weather today is like it is normally in Russia!" he smiled, "I only thought about finishing the race today. I could have been quicker, but I didn't want to take any risks and stayed at my level."

The final podium place in GT1 was taken by the second BMS Scuderia Italia entry, which had a more troublesome race than its sister car, but never gave up. A power steering problem lost Christian Pescatori three laps in the pits, while the weather conditions caught out both Michele Bartyan and Toni Seiler during their stints.

The British TVR marque scored a 1-2 victory in the GT2 class, having been on the pace of the Porsches all weekend. Warren Hughes, Jonny Kane and Laurence Tomlinson finished eighth overall in their Team LMT TVR Tuscan T400R, with Marc Hynes, Patrick Pearce and Jason Templeman tenth.