ALMS: Hybrid car takes 3rd place in endurance race

From team release

The Corsa Motorsports Ginetta Zytek 09HS hybrid car finished third in last weekend’s round of the American Le Mans Series held at Lime Rock, Connecticut.

“It was an historic moment,” said racecar driver Johnny Mowlem. “Simply unbelievable that given how new all this technology is, that we ran the whole race reliably and with no real issues.”

Mowlem qualified the car third for the second race in succession and then alongside his star teammate Stefan Johansson, drove the hybrid-powered car to a third place finish in the American Le Mans Series Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park.

It was the first use of a combination petrol/electric hybrid engine in a racing application among the world’s fastest sports cars.

Mowlem’s mount, the Corsa Motorsports Ginetta Zytek 09HS, raced against the most powerful sports cars in the world at Lime Rock, the cars in the LMP1 class for racing prototypes. The Corsa car finished five laps ahead of the fourth finisher, proving the new technology was not only race ready but also capable of running very competitively.

“The car raced well,” Mowlem said. “We have more development work to do with the hybrid power as well as sorting all the various car handling issues that this technology brings with it, but we know there is tremendous potential from a competitive point of view. Perhaps more importantly, every advancement we make with this racing package will eventually find its way to road vehicles on the public roads, which is a huge part of all this.”