Jackie Chan DC Racing had a race to remember at the 4 Hours of Fuji, second round of the 2017/2018 Asian Le Mans Series season with a commanding double class win as problems and mistakes hit their competitors at the Japanese circuit.
The No. 37 BBT Ligier got trapped in the middle of the battle for first and then suffered contact at the first lap, which propelled the Jackie Chan DC Racing cars to an overall 1-2, with the No. 8 Oreca leading the way. With the leading car opening the gap, the No. 7 DC Racing Oreca was had the work of sustaining second place as the shadow of the No. 4 ARC Bratislava Ligier was near the No. 7. Almost 30 minutes behind the No. 7 turned into an overtake for the No. 4, while the No. 37 BBT Ligier recovered from the spin and was coming for battle too. It didn’t took long from that point for David Cheng to be outpaced by Rik Breukers and Anthony Liu.
The LMP3 class was being led by the No. 18 KCMG Ligier while the No. 66 TianShi Audi was in a hard charge as the GT class leader, with both FIST Team AAI cars unable to threat it at that point.
Double stinting the tires had good implications for BBT as the No. 37 Ligier took the lead over a conservative No. 8 DC Racing Oreca, now with Harrison Newey at the wheel. Things also changed in the GT class as both Team AAI entries passed the No. 66 TianShi Audi, with the No. 90 car leading the 1-2. The biggest turnaround was in the LMP3 class, as lots of mistakes of Neric Wei and then a problem in the No. 18 KCMG Ligier threw the team out off the race, with the consistent No. 11 GH Motorsport Ligier taking the class lead, though they had their own worries with the No. 6 DC Racing Ligier trying to approach them.
In the third hour, Jackie Chan DC Racing gained control in both LMP2 and LMP3 classes, as Thomas Laurent in the No. 8 Ligier overtook Davide Rizzo in the No. 37 BBT Ligier, and Guy Cosmo in the No. 6 Ligier outpaced Hanss Lin in the No. 11 GH Motorsport Ligier. In the GT class it was a FIST Team AAI affair with the No. 91 BMW leading until the final 20 minutes, when a penalty due to mandatory pit time violation changed places between it and the No. 90 Ferrari.
The final hour had everything almost settled, but the GT class position swap was followed by the retirement of the No. 11 GH Motorsport Ligier, which handed the second place to the No. 65 Viper NIZA Ligier and the third place to the No. 99 TKS Ginetta, a big improvement after an early clutch problem that sent the Japanese car to a halt for a long time.
With the LMP2 and LMP3 leads settled, the Jackie Chan DC Racing car just had to cross the finish line, though Thomas Laurent in the No. 8 Oreca and Guy Cosmo in the No. 6 Ligier still went pedal to the metal until the final lap, and with the third place of the No. 7 Oreca, the Chinese team had all their three entries in the overall top-5. From the moment when Marco Cioci took the GT class lead with the No. 90 AAI Ferrari, it didn’t let go, keeping the streak for the Taiwanese team.
The trio of the No. 8 DC Racing Oreca leads the standings with 51 points against 37 of the No. 37 BBT Ligier and 27 of the No. 4 ARC Bratislava Ligier. In the LMP3 class, the No. 6 DC Racing duo leads with 40 points against 30 of Douglas Khoo and Dominic Ang and 27 of the No. 18 KCMG Ligier. The drivers of both Team AAI entries lead the GT class with 44 points, with the exceptions being Rafaelle Marciello and Marco Cioci, who race once this season each.
The Asian Le Mans Series ceases its activities for 2017 and the action restarts on January 13th with the 6 Hours of Buriram, in Thailand.
PHOTO: Asian Le Mans Series
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