Le Mans 24 Hours – Scrutineering 4 – Gulf Racing Middle East It’s been a very difficult start to the Gulf Racing Middle East programme, in particular for the #29 car, and Le Mans sees both cars race with reshuffled crews. The #28 car sees FFSA GT Tour race Ludovic Badey replace Maxime Jousse and joining Stefan Johansson and Fabien Giroix. #29 meanwhile sees none of the drivers tested at the Test Day on board with Marc Rostan joining season long signings Keiko Ihara and Jean Denis Deletraz. Fabien Giroix “It has been a frustrating start. The cars were late and, of course, we now have the issues at Lola to deal with so we are short on spares here too. “There were already issues at Sebring so at first we had no data logger and no radio in the #29 car. “We have had other reliability problems since then so our opportunities to put in long runs have been severely compromised. “Losing Frederic (to a pitlane accident which saw co-owner Frederic Fatien break a leg ) was a blow but the whole team has pulled together very well indeed and we worked well to find the right driver for Le Mans after Steve (Quick) decided that this year was perhaps too early, (the 2011 Lotus Cup UK Champion reportedly failed to make the pre-qualifying cut). Marc (Rostan) will be very good for the team. He is experienced and does not make mistakes. That will be very important for the race. Keiko (Ihara) is finding speed and again makes no mistakes and Jean Denis is of course very experienced too. “In the race, because of our spares position we perhaps cannot attack as much as we would like to. “Moving forward we are working with the Lola administrators to find a solution but they are perhaps 2 moths away from a permanent solution – For now we must remind people that we are a new team, with new cars and several new drivers too.” Marc Rostan “This happened only three days ago, just as all options seemed to be over for me this year. I had been talking to Status and to Murphy too but the call from Fabien was very welcome. “This will be a tough race for the whole team and I hope I can help them to find a way to bring the car to the finish.” | 
