JOTA Sport claimed a stunning LMP2 victory – and an incredible fifth overall – in their eighth appearance at Le Mans.
Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and Oliver Turvey steered their JOTA Sport Zytek Z11SN to LM P2 category honours one-lap ahead of their nearest rivals.
Oliver Turvey had only flown out to join the team on Thursday morning after a last minute call-up after Marc Gené, Audi Sport’s “reserve” driver (who had been loaned to JOTA), was recalled by the German team after Loic Duval’s accident in practice.
Tincknell started the race from second in class on Saturday afternoon thanks to his stunning qualifying performance on Thursday evening – the Le Mans debutant deprived of “pole” position by a mere 0.065secs and he made a blistering start to lead, with all three British drivers performing faultlessly.
Despite his limited sports car experience and his first time out at Le Mans, Tincknell has
made a stunning transition from open-wheeler racing. A fact that wasn’t lost on the 22 year-old Englishman.
“I drove my heart out and gave it my all –absolutely everything, especially in my quadruple stint on Sunday” said Tincknell. “Everything just flowed as a combination of 15 years of racing all for this one magical moment. To win at Le Mans on my debut is the biggest moment in my career to date and is a reward for every day I train in the gym – I can’t believe it, it’s always been a dream.”
Tincknell’s Le Man’s performance earned him a personal invitation from the Earl of March to attend next weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in the race-winning Zytek.
“I’m looking forward to tackling the actual hillclimb” added Tincknell. “It'll be my first time doing anything like this and I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun. The ‘Mighty 38’ Zytek did us proud at Le Mans and deserves to be there with the rest of the great cars present.”
Jota Victory earns Tincknell Goodwood Guest Appearance
Images: Jota Sport