In 2011, Team Bruichladdich will be entering its 6th year racing in the Le Mans Series and the Le Mans 24 Hour for the 5th year in a row, and is looking forward to building on its 2010 successes. This year they ran the Zytek LMP2 petrol engine normally aspirated 3.4 litre V8. The highlight last year was P10 overall and 5th in class at the Le Mans 24 hour race. It was a particularly tough race with only 40% of the cars finishing. To commemorate this, the Team will be offering a special bottling Bruichladdich Whisky, from the Team Owners private stock, more details will be released shortly.
A Nissan engine for Team Bruichladdich
The Zytek LMP2 V8 engine is to be replaced with Nismo V8 VK45DE 4.5 litre production engine. Other engines were seriously considered, but an early decision was essential as there is a lot of work to get through during the winter. Nismo convinced us that their engine would be competitive, reliable and available in good time. It was especially important that the installation was also relatively simple and fully supported through Zytek. Due to the new 2011 rules modifications to the car are limited. The car will be having several permitted upgrades that will provide significant improvement in the overall performance of the car and its service ability.
Tim Greaves retires
Team owner Tim Greaves has retired from LM driving (for a 2nd time, will there be a 3rd?) and a replacement driver with a budget is being sought. Tim will concentrate on helping build up the Team with his son Jacob. Jacob has managed the Team for over three years.
Team Bruichladdich in Radical series
The Team has recently purchased a new Radical SR8. They will run in several of the Radical series next year and several drivers have already expressed and interest. The last outing was at Silverstone were it finished 2nd with Per Staff Junior at the wheel. The cars next outing will be at Paul Ricard in the Oreca Winter Series with Karim Ojjeh and the Team Race Director Paul Thomas at the wheel showing the skills he has learnt from engineering top drivers like Johnny Herbert, Allan McNish, Christian Fittipaldi and many others.