Asian Le Mans Series

[Akrapovic]

Asian Le Mans Series Zhuhai Resources

Official WebsiteEntry List
Timetable

» Many aren't familiar with the Asian Le Mans Series. They know it exists, but haven't devoted much time to it. Lets take a look at the series and see if this year will change your mind.

» Asian Le Mans Series is a growing series. The quality of the entries is higher than it ever has been, and with 4 automatic Le Mans invitations, it's more relevant than ever as well. The provisional entry list contains 16 cars, but some cars which were set to run are not on the list. Hopefully that changes.

» The class structure is LMP2, LMP3, GT and GT Cup. The LMP2 class consists of previous generation LMP2s, GT is GT3 regulations, and GT Cup are single make classes that are balanced together. LMP3 is the same familiar LMP3 we see in Europe and North America.

» For the 2017/2018 season, the Asian Le Mans Series has 4 automatic Le Mans invitations. The first 3 are self explanatory - LMP2 winner, LMP3 winner and GT winner. The fourth will go to a GT 'Am' class winner should the new class gain enough entries. If the class lacks entries, then the fourth invitation will go to the GT class runner-up.

» AsLMS are putting a lot of effort into trying to improve the broadcast of the races. Last season, the races were on YouTube, but coverage was patchy. For 17/18, they're advertising more live streams, and DSC's Graham Goodwin commentating. So it's worth a go.

» Zhuhai International Circuit time zone is CST. UTC/GMT +8. Not always the best for live viewing, but with YouTube storing the streams afterwards, we'd recommend tuning in Sunday morning.

LMP2

» The LMP2 class contains a slightly disappointing 6 cars for the opening round. But the low numbers don't mean low quality. Jackie Chan DC Racing X Jota are entering 2 Oreca 05s, Algarve Pro and Eurasia Motorsports have a Ligier JSP2 each, BBT Racing step up from the GT class with a Ligier, and ARC Bratislava move up from LMP3 to LMP2 with another Ligier. 2 Oreca, 4 Ligier.

» Driver names might be a surprise too. Harrison Newey is joined by Stéphane Richelmi and Tomhas Laurent in the #7 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca. The #8 sister car will be piloted by James Winslow, Ho-Pin Tung and David Cheng. JC DC Jota aren't pulling punches.

» The other interesting driver line-up is the #37 BBT Ligier.Anthony Xu Liu and Davide Rizzo move up to LMP2 with BBT, but they are joined by IMSA star Pipo Derani. That'll be interesting, to say the least.

LMP3

» The LMP3 class has a 5 car entry for Zhuhai, all Ligier JSP3s. Unfortunately, there is no sign of the Ginettas and Adess from last season. Sarrazin Motorsport (no prizes for guessing who runs that!) were tipped for an entry, but haven't appeared on the entry list.

»Le Mans class winner Richard Bradley will drive the #1 WIN Motorsport LMP3. WIN are a new stand-alone entry, splitting from the Wineurasia entry last season.

» Not happy with 2 cars in LMP2, Jackie Chan DC Racing have also entered a LMP3. At the wheel will be Americans Patrick Byrne and Guy Cosmo.

GT

» The success of the Blancpain GT Asia series may have hurt initial entries for Asian Le Mans GT3 based class. 4 entries, and unfortunately no sign of*HubAuto Racing Porsche that Earl Bamber was due to compete with.

» GT is the smallest class, just 4 cars. But in the usual GT3 fashion, it's also the most diverse. Ferrari 488, Audi R8 LMS, Mercedes AMG and a BMW M6. The numbers might be small, but at least there is diversity.

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Firstly, sorry for formatting errors. It's designed for a totally different system, and this version of vB isn't compatible with many new features.

Secondly, I am not fully up to speed with AsLMS yet, so have done my best.

Thirdly...yeah I'm a little disappointed with the entry list too. I was hoping for 25 or so, and the lack of diversity in LMP3 (compared with last year) is a shame. Hoping that entry list is very provisional.

[Akrapovic]

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2017/1...18-opener.html

More complete look at things here.

[Ospi]

Unfortunately numbers way down on last season thanks to the majority of the GT field doing blancpain and the tight turnaround making it impossible to have cars in Zhuhai. At least p2 is stronger than ever.

[TF110]

I'll admit to not caring much about this series. But if they can continue with some progress it might prove to be useful to get Asian teams interested. Jackie Chan racing being the big one could play out over there to help bolster that grid. Maybe help the image as well.

[bentley speed 8]

Last year most of the grid was GT cars, so the reduced car count is to be expected (still, Blancpain Asia doesn't award an automatic LM entry for the winners).
But I admit that I expected something else in LMP3 (not even a Norma?)

[Akrapovic]

To be fair to all the fans, it's hard to care about a series you can't watch. AsLMS has been dabbling in internet streaming and did do last season's races, but it was a bit all over the place. Some races only had static cameras, one had static camera and no commentators. When they get it right, they have Graham Goodwin and proper camera coverage and it's actually pretty good. You never knew what you were getting until the day, and sometimes it was disappointing. They seem to have ramped it up a bit for this season, so we'll see how that goes. I'm certainly going to give the races a watch, but it will be tape delay due to the times.

If I were the ACO, I'd make a decent gap after the Blancpain GT Series, to try and grab entries from that for through the winter. And I'd try and couple the WEC Shanghai and ASLMS races together, to see if it gains any more interest.

[Damian Baldi]

They have real cameras this year. The qualification in online at his youtube site.

4 Hours of ZHUHAI - QUALIFYING - Round 1 - 2017/18 Asian Le Mans Series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDDzDiIkiuM

There's a good amount of P2 cars (Oreca 05 and Ligier P2), and the classic P3s.

Pipo Derani drives one of the Ligier, fighting against the JC cars.

[Akrapovic]

JC DC Racing have 2 LMP2s and an LMP3. In theory, they could end up with 2 Le Mans invitations from AsLMS, plus whatever cars they run in WEC (got to assume JC DC and Jota will stay together).

4 Jota JC DC Racing cars for LM 18?

[Damian Baldi]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

JC DC Racing have 2 LMP2s and an LMP3. In theory, they could end up with 2 Le Mans invitations from AsLMS, plus whatever cars they run in WEC (got to assume JC DC and Jota will stay together).

4 Jota JC DC Racing cars for LM 18?

Thanks for all the information Akrapovic.


The broadcast now is a lot better, with full cameras coverage, comentator, and live interviews from the pitline in a funny english (even for me that I speak spanish)

It looks like we will have a thigh fight between JC's Orecas and the Ligier of BBT with Derani at the wheel.

[Akrapovic]

Thanks for the qualifying link. It's nice having a proper stream now.

Image quality isn't quite HD, so it's not the quality of ELMS and WEC yet, but it's good enough and much better than last year. I'm not familiar with the commentator with Graham Goodwin, but he's not bad too.

So overall, great step up. Just need a few more cars.

[Damian Baldi]

I followed last season as I could, with some streaming, posts at social media from the drivers, and live timing. The new coverage will be a good step ahead.

This series is very interesting to follow drivers performance, there is always some kind of drama and the races are fun.

JC with four cars at Le Mans 2018? hmm I don't know, is that possible?

My only concern about AsLMS for next year, is WEC moving the schedule and overlap both series.

[Akrapovic]

It's possible in terms of invitations, but may not be possible for them to run 4 cars.

I'm making assumptions here, so this could be completely wrong. It also assumes they will win, which of course might not happen!

2x entry for full WEC season
1x entry for winning AsLMS LMP2
1x entry for winning AsLMS LMP3

The AsLMS invitations will need a new car in some form too, as the Oreca 05 isn't eligible anymore. It's possible, but a 4 car operation from a small team might be a bit much.

[Damian Baldi]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

It's possible in terms of invitations, but may not be possible for them to run 4 cars.

I'm making assumptions here, so this could be completely wrong. It also assumes they will win, which of course might not happen!

2x entry for full WEC season
1x entry for winning AsLMS LMP2
1x entry for winning AsLMS LMP3

The AsLMS invitations will need a new car in some form too, as the Oreca 05 isn't eligible anymore. It's possible, but a 4 car operation from a small team might be a bit much.

About the cars, it depends on which cars AsLMS will use in 2018/2019, because if they move to new cars, JC (or Jota if they are the owners of the cars), could upgrade the Oreca 05 to 07 spec.

Maybe, having four cars it's all about busines, because they could have two extra cars for drivers with money.


Here is the link for the live streaming (you could click to add it to a schedule alarm)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0rYi9Ew_8E

[Purist]

Well, I'd guess WEC Fuji will be close to AsLMS Zhuhai, but WEC Shanghai fits nicely in the gap between AsLMS Zhuhai and Fuji. Then, the WEC doesn't have anything until Sebring, so Buriram and Sepang are fine.

Damian, I assume you meant "tight fight" in your earlier post. (You had a bit of a "Freudian slip" there.)

[Damian Baldi]

Originally Posted by Purist

Well, I'd guess WEC Fuji will be close to AsLMS Zhuhai, but WEC Shanghai fits nicely in the gap between AsLMS Zhuhai and Fuji. Then, the WEC doesn't have anything until Sebring, so Buriram and Sepang are fine.

Damian, I assume you meant "tight fight" in your earlier post. (You had a bit of a "Freudian slip" there.)

ouch! sorry about that comment my mistake

About the series, is not so Asian as I expected, there is only a japanese driver. Maybe Japan with their own GT series doesn't have interest in this LM series.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I'm not familiar with the commentator with Graham Goodwin, but he's not bad too.

He's Jeevan Selvanathan. He's based in Malaysia. He did the commentary for the AsLMS Sprint Cup this year, and also commentates on a lot of Malaysian motorsport.

[Damian Baldi]

Live timing here

https://livetiming.getraceresults.co...screen-results

[Akrapovic]

I've never watched a full AsLMS race before (due to no stream!) and I don't think I know enough to do a good quality report, but here's one anyway.

LMP2 – Jota dominate

Jackie Chan DC Racing X Jota dominated the opening round of the Asian Le Mans Series at Zhuhai. Despite the #37 BBT Ligier taking the lead early through an alternate pit stop strategy, Richelmi, Newey and Laurent fought back and the #8 Oreca 05 crossed the line almost 2 minutes ahead of the nearest competition.

Team BBT stepped up from GT to LMP2 class for 2017/2018 and put in a strong performance on their debut. Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo were joined by IMSA superstar Pipo Derani. The LMP2 debutants made good use of the Brazilians skills, leading the race twice and taking a solid second place.

ARC Bratislava completed the LMP2 podium in their ex-Krohn Racing Ligier JSP2. After finishing as runners up in the LMP3 class last year, ARC Bratislava also moved up to the LMP2 class. A podium in their debut LMP2 race in the series can be considered a success.

The #7 Jackie Chan DC Racing X Jota entry struggled with electrical problems. The car initially lost power steering, giving the drivers a bit of a work out. Despite time in the pits, the situation deteriorated and started causing the engine to cut out. The #7 was the only retirement, completing just 41 laps compared to the leaders 154.

LMP3 – KCMG victory

KCMG won the LMP3 class, finishing a minute ahead of the Taiwan Beer GH Ligier JSP3. KCMG stepped up from the GT class to LMP3 this season, and did it with style. The Hong Kong based team took the lead at around half distance and cruised to the victory.

Taiwan Beer GH led early, but a Full Course Yellow speed violation cost them the lead. The team held a slim 1 second lead over the KCMG car, but dropped to 30 seconds behind after the penalty.

The LMP3 entry from Jackie Chan DC Racing X Jota finished 3rd. Americans Guy Cosmo and Patrick Byrne choosing to run in a Ligier JSP3 after an enjoyable run in the UK LMP3 Cup last season.

GT – FIST-Team AAI One-Two

The GT Class was a Team AAI Master Class demonstration. The team entered two different GT3 cars, a BMW M6 and a Mercedes AMG, and finished 1-2 in class. The #91 BMW M6 GT3, driven by Jesse Krohn, Junsan Chen and Chaz Mostert, came home first. The #90 Mercedes AMG GT3 was second, some 20 seconds behind the sister car.

[Damian Baldi]

Looking at the live timing, it was notorious how fast (near a second) were the Orecas on the last sector compared with the Ligier. That difference killed any possibility of the good fight. All the Ligiers got almost the same best lap time, but the Oreca were near two second faster.

Let's see how it goes in the next track.

[Damian Baldi]

Race Results

http://getraceresults.com/Results/or...ries+2017-2018


4 Hours of ZHUHAI Highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHRMsy4OItA


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[Juntos]

The entry list was weaker than before and Jota dominance expected.

Note: None of the top Asian teams join the game. BBT is AF Corse.

[Bcarr6]

AAI Motorsports will have a Ferrari for the rest of the season fielding Marco Cioci / Yam Lu / Ollie Millroy

Not sure if this 488 GT3 is to replace one of the previously entered BMW M6 GT3s or in addition


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Akrapovic]

Ollie Millroy and Lam Yu were in the Mercedes for round 1. I presume it's replacing that.

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Juntos

The entry list was weaker than before and Jota dominance expected.

Note: None of the top Asian teams join the game. BBT is AF Corse.

The money for the BBT effort comes from Anthony Liu who is very much Asian - AF Corse are a global team

[Coach Ep]

(Possibly) 4 auto invites to LM should project a bigger carrot for potential entrants.