It was time to settle things in the 2017/2018 Asian Le Mans Series season, and Jackie Chan DC Racing dominated not only the race with two class wins, but also got the LMP2 and LMP3 titles, adding extra entries to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while Team AAI was crowned the GT champion.
The start was commanded by the Jackie Chan DC Racing cars as the No. 8 Oreca got the early lead, and the polesitter No. 33 Eurasia Ligier was surprisingly in third position as Marko Asmer was putting a good performance. Soon DC Racing was in their own matters with their Orecas fighting for the lead and it didn’t took much for the No. 7 to go ahead with Jazeman Jaafar at the wheel.
It took around 30 minutes for the first yellow flag period with the No. 25 Algarve Pro Ligier stopping on track and returning a few moments later, and DC Racing took the opportunity for earlier pit stops, and so did many other cars from all classes.
The first round of pit stops worked a lot on favor of the No. 18 KCMG Ligier as they jumped from the back to the top of the LMP3 class field. Nabil Jeffri was also in a hard charge with the No. 33 Eurasia Ligier, eventually rising to the lead, and kept it until Jake Parsons subbed him at the wheel of the No. 33.
With Stephane Richelmi at the wheel of the No. 8 DC Racing Oreca the advantage came back to the Chinese team as not only Richelmi was in fast pace but also with a consolidated gap to the No. 37 BBT Ligier. In LMP3 the lead battle was between charging contenders as the No. 18 KCMG Ligier was defending itself from the No. 6 DC Racing Ligier, with the Chinese team completing the overtake after some time on pure attack mode.
The final hour pretty much settled everything in all classes as the No. 8 DC Racing Oreca had no threats due to its pace in LMP2, and so did the No. 6 DC Racing Ligier in LMP3, staying like this until the checkered flag. The GT class practically turned into the same 1-car race of the GT Cup class, with the No. 91 AAI BMW leading and winning after the No. 66 TianShi Audi and the No. 90 AAI Ferrari had their own problems to deal with, which included some gravel time for the No. 90. With this, it turned out that the No. 77 Team NZ Porsche Cup, the only GT Cup entry, finished ahead of the GT cars except the winner.
The trio of the No. 8 DC Racing of Thomas Laurent, Harrison Newey and Stephane Richelmi takes the title with 95 points, taking also the teams championship in LMP2. The LMP3 champions are also from DC Racing as Guy Cosmo and Patrick Byrne lift the trophy with 77 points.
The GT trophy goes to the No. 91 AAI BMW, Jesse Krohn and Jun San Chen as they scored 94 points and the GT Cup title stays with the only entry in the class, the No. 77 Team NZ Porshce Cup of Graeme Dowsett, John Curran and Will Bamber.
DC Racing gets to LMP2 entries to the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans due to the LMP2 and LMP3 titles, while Team AAI gets two LMGTE-Am entries for the French race due to the 1-2 in the GT class standings.
PHOTO: Asian Le Mans Series
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