The scenic Red Bull Ring, set in the Styrian region of Austria, was the venue for the third round of the 2014 European Le Mans Series. The Peterborough based Greaves Motorsport had ‘a good day in the office’ with both of their Nissan powered Zytek prototypes finishing in the top six, one just missing out on a podium place.

Luciano Bacheta, the 2012 FIA Formula Two Champion, made his début for the team starting the #28 car. He soon proved his talent, bringing the car from seventh on the grid to lead the race just before the first hour. He completed a double stint displaying front running pace before handing over to his team mate, Mark Schulzhitskiy. Mark, a recent graduate of the Nissan GT Academy, drove a marathon 2 hours 25 minutes stint displaying good pace and racecraft to bring the car home in fourth place.

Car #41 was also started by a driver racing for the first time with Greaves Motorsport, the experienced Mark Patterson. He ran a strong opening spell despite making an unscheduled pitstop to repair damage caused early in the race by another competitor. Mark handed over the team’s young star, Matt McMurry, fresh from his exploits at Le Mans last month. Matt showed his customary assured speed behind the wheel to hand over to the team’s long time professional, Tom Kimber-Smith. Tom put in a very strong performance, his duel with ex Formula One driver, Christian Klein, being one of the highlights of the race. Unfortunately with the Chequered Flag in sight, Tom was baulked by a slower car and lost the contest. Sixth place was the final result.

Team Principal Tim Greaves: “Another good race performance from both our cars. Luciano did all that we expected of him, given his record and Mark was one of the revelations of the race. He was on course for a podium but had a spark plug failure that curtailed his charge. We are really pleased to have both Luciano and Mark racing with us for the balance of the season and they will be certainly be challenging for podiums and wins. Car #41 struggled after the early unscheduled pitstop after Mark was hit on the opening lap. Then he did not get the breaks early on in the traffic but all three drivers made a significant contribution to the strong finish.”

Team Manager Jacob Greaves: “A good result for the team and some great performances from all the drivers. Our partners, Zytek, Nissan and Dunlop all made significant contributions and the guys in the team did their usual polished job. We are looking forward to the next race at Le Castellet in September.”