GULF GEARS UP FOR THE GREAT RACE

GULF GEARS UP FOR THE GREAT RACE

Le Mans, 7th June 2011.

In just four days time, this year’s Le Mans 24 Hour race will be underway with the grid awash with light blue and orange as a record number of Gulf branded cars will be taking part in the event.

The Aston Martin Racing team will be putting the new ground-up developed AMR-One LMP1 prototype race car through its toughest test yet in front of the 250,000 strong crowd as the British team returns to La Sarthe to continue the development of the new AMR-One in its inaugural year on the 8.4 mile (13.6km) circuit.

2011 has seen the re-invention of the Aston Martin Le Mans programme with an innovative prototype car designed ultimately to make the best of the new technical regulations balancing the performance between diesel and petrol engine competitors. Indeed, all that is carried over from 2010’s entry is the iconic orange and blue Gulf Oil livery.

The AMR-One features a new 2.0 litre straight six turbo-charged engine designed and built by Aston Martin Racing. The new open-cockpit car was only given the green light in September 2010 and since then the team has been busy designing, building and developing the car ready for its most demanding challenge yet. The main aim for the team at Le Mans this year will be to accumulate valuable experience and information to support its challenge for top honours later in this ambitious multi-year programme.

As is tradition, Aston Martin will be running the famous starting numbers of 007 and 009 adorning the two works-entered Gulf liveried AMR-Ones. Driving the 007 car will be Darren Turner (GB) Stefan Mücke (D) and newly joined ex F1 ace, Christian Klien (A). Piloting the 009 car will be Harold Primat (CH), Andy Meyrick (GB) and Adrian Fernandez (MX).

On how the car and the team have been progressing in 2011, Team Principal, George Howard-Chappell said: “Time has not been on our side in the build up to Le Mans, however we have made significant progress since our first outing with the car at Paul Ricard in April. We have recently come back from a test in Monza where the engine has demonstrated better reliability, and our drivers have reported very positively on the car’s balance and handling.

“We won’t be pushing the car to its maximum potential this weekend, as we need to build up to that. We’re in the early stages of the car’s birth so it will be nice if we can run reliably; the performance will come later.”

The Aston Martin factory team is joined by two other teams who are be running their cars in Gulf colours.

The Gulf Racing Team – which is entered for Le Mans as Gulf AMR Middle East – is competing in the GTE-AM category with their #60 Vantage GT2 Aston Martin. The team enjoys the official support of both Gulf Oil International and Aston Martin Racing. The category is primarily aimed at teams of gentleman racers who are allowed one professional driver as part of the line up. In the case of Gulf Racing this is the vastly experienced Fabien Giroix, who joins the increasingly rapid Roald Goethe and Mike Wainwright. The team is overseen by renowned team principal Dave Price.

Crack French endurance squad, Oak Racing completes the Gulf line-up for this year’s Le Mans. The team, whose home base is actually situated in the middle of the Le Mans 24 Hours circuit, is running two Gulf-liveried Pescarolo prototypes in LMP1, while a further Gulf coloured Pescarolo contests the smaller, LMP2 prototype category in which Oak has impressively secured a podium finish for the last three years.

In the #15 LMP1 car, Guillaume Moreau and Pierre Ragues are joined by former F1 driver – and current WTCC driver - Tiago Monteiro. Tiago is a replacement for Matthieu Lahay, who was injured at Spa. Gentlemen drivers Richard Hein, Jacques Nicolet and Jean-François Yvon are re-united for the third time in car #24.