Today at the Fuji Speedway Greaves Motorsport extended their sequence of points scoring finishes with a strong 6th place at the 6 Hours of Fuji. Driving the team’s Nissan powered Zytek, Christian Zugel, Ricardo Gonzalez and Elton Julian had a largely trouble free run during the race.
Ricardo started the race, having Qualified the car yesterday and showed initially a good pace to maintain the team’s Championship challenge. However his speed was impaired by severe rubber pick up after only a few laps causing very difficult driving conditions. Christian drove the middle stints to the agreed strategy before handing over to Elton who brought the car home to the Chequered Flag, maintaining the team’s 4th position in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Christian Zugel: “Racing in Japan was an awesome experience, especially here at the great Fuji Speedway and in front of so many really enthusiastic fans. The Organisers have done a first class job with the FIA WEC this year, as can be seen from the closeness of the competition in all the classes. For me, being a part of this Championship is like scoring a victory every time I race. Of course none of this would be possible without the hard work and long hours of the team and the great performances of my team mates, Ricardo and Elton. It has been a long journey for us all since Sebring in March and I am really looking forward to the final race in Shanghai in two weeks and to maintaining our Championship position.”
Ricardo Gonzalez: “It was a difficult weekend for us, obviously we would have liked to have been faster and to be able to compete with the front runners but we just didn’t have it here. The good news is we are still fourth in the Championship and now we go on to China to make sure we keep it like that! The team as always did a great job, the car ran flawlessly without any problems, same with Elton and Christian who both had very good stints.”
Elton Julian: “We struggled a bit on ultimate pace and our rivals made no mistakes today, so the result was probably the best we could achieve in the circumstances. We are still fourth in the Championship, so we will fight very hard in China to stay in that position. I would like to thank Christian and Ricardo as well as the team, I am sure that we will get the right result in Shanghai.”
Team Manager, Jacob Greaves: “We knew that we might not have the outright speed of our competitors, so focused on maintaining our points scoring run and we achieved that aim. The combination of Nissan engines, Zytek chassis and Dunlop tyres has allowed us to be very consistent through the whole year and we go to China confident that we get the job done.”