POUGHKEEPSIE, NY, AUG. 3, 2004 — Chris Dyson will drive the Zytek 04S prototype sportscar at the Silverstone (UK) round of the Le Mans Endurance Series, August 13-15. The announcement was made today in Banbury by Zytek Motorsports’ Trevor Foster.
“We’ve been watching Chris’s development as a sportscar driver,” Foster said. “His LMP675 championship last year in the American Le Mans Series was very impressive, and then we watched how he went at Le Mans in June. He showed good form there, and since then we’ve been keeping track of his performance in the ALMS. Certainly his duel the weekend before last with JJ Lehto at Portland was remarkable. So we asked if he’d be interested in driving with us at Silverstone later this month.”
Dyson completes a duo of young, up and coming drivers for the Zytek team. His co-driver at Silverstone will be Englishman Robbie Kerr, the 2002 British Formula 3 champion.
Dyson was receptive to Zytek’s approach, in part because his Dyson Racing teammate, Andy Wallace, had driven for Zytek at Le Mans.
“Andy and his teammates qualified third there, and were really the only team that was able to offer a head-to-head challenge to the Audis,” Dyson said. “Andy was quite impressed with both the team and the car, so I already had a quite positive impression even before Trevor called. Also, like the Audi team, Zytek manufacturers both its own chassis and engine, and I think that gives them a potential advantage over their other competitors. If I didn’t think that we could challenge the Audis for the win, I wouldn’t be doing this.”
Facts About Zytek Although not as well known in America as it is in Europe, the Zytek Group is a major supplier to the global automotive industry expertise in automotive control systems, powertrain management and hybrid-electric vehicles. Past and present clients include Aston Martin, Bentley, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Honda, Jaguar, Rolls-Royce and Yamaha.
Zytek is best known as the supplier of the V8 engines for the F3000 series, but the company’s motorsport divisions (Zytek Systems, Zytek Engineering Engine Technology and Zytek Engineering Vehicle Technology) design and manufacture engines, engine management systems and chassis for series racing as well as specific projects for individual clients.
