MANILA, Philippines - Just as the name “Le Mans” is inextricably linked to sports cars and endurance racing, so the Motul brand is known for the formulation, development and production of world-class endurance lubricants. The global high-performance lubricant brand once again made its presence felt at the famous track recently alongside sports car racing’s most well-known names for the 79th running of the 24-Hours of Le Mans.
Well-known teams carried the famous Motul colors around the 8.7-mile long circuit, consisting mainly of public roads. The 24-Hours of Le Mans is considered the world’s most renowned sports car race.
Motul is delighted to welcome back to its stable of technical partners the legendary Pescarolo name, returning to LMP1 competition and the La Sarthe event after a break in 2010. Led by four-time Le Mans winner Henri Pescarolo, the team’s Pescarolo-Judd will be piloted by Emmanuel Collard, Christophe Tinseau and Julien Jousse who have already enjoyed race success in 2011 by winning the opening round of the Le Mans Series at Le Castellet.
Pescarolo is one of a number of Le Mans prototype teams exclusively using Motul products, and will be competing against the highly successful Team Oreca Matmut which has entries in LMP1 and LMP2. The Motul-supported LMP2 Oreca-Nissan will be led by Alexandre Premat and the lineup includes David Hallyday and Dominik Kraihamer. Joining the prototype group under Motul’s banner will be new partner Greaves Motorsport in LMP2. Karim Ojjeh, Tom Kimber-Smith and Olivier Lombard will be aboard a Zytek Nissan and hoping to emulate the kind of result they had at Le Castellet when they finished third overall.
In the GT categories, Motul is represented by two of the sport’s leading teams. Long-time partner and former Le Mans GT1 winning team Larbre Competition will campaign a Corvette C6R and a Porsche GT3-RSR in the GTE-Am category, while new partner Jota Sport will race an Aston Martin in the GTE-Pro class.
Within the 300V Motul product range, the oil dedicated to racing, the 20W60 lubricant was developed specially to deal with high-performance endurance engines and carries the name “Le Mans” in recognition of the partnership. Endurance racing thus occupies a vital place in Motul’s motorsport strategy and it is this product which will play a vital role in the teams’ attack on the 24-hour event.
In the Philippines, Motul is represented by renowned tuning firm Autoplus Sportzentrium, exclusive distributors of the brand.