GT teams finalize details for Asian LMS season start

We are in the race week that kicks off the 2018/2019 Asian Le Mans Series season, and there are some gaps to fill here and there, most of them being in the GT field, especially with some late entries helping in the grid numbers.

Before the week starts we only had Red River by TF Sport and CarGuy Racing cars and lineups confirmed, but the week brought some surprises from those who only had confirmed machinery for the season.

First of all, Spirit of Race confirmed their lineup for the single Ferrari 488 GT3 as they announced Ferrari factory driver Alessandro Pier Guidi, IMSA race Oswaldo Negri and Francesco Piovanetti. While Pier Guidi is an established GT racer, Negri is redescovering the GTs after more than a decade dedicated to prototype racing, and Piovanetti is a Ferrari Challenge driver making the step to GT3s, as proven by his outings with Squadra Corse Garage Italia in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship along with Negri.

Then Audi Sport TSRT made its move by confirming the lineups of its pair of R8 LMS machines, improving the program that started from a single car last season. Max Wiser and Weian Chen are returning to the team, though they will be split between the two entries. Wiser will be joined by Xu Wei and WTCR racer Rob Huff in the No. 66 Audi while Weian will be alongside Dennis Zhang and Dries Vanthoor.

Huff is adding more GT3 experience in between his full time commitments in touring cars, and Xu’s situation is similar, though his background are the one-make GT Cup series. Zhang comes with national touring experience while Vanthoor is the works driver of the program, jumping straight from the FIA GT World Cup at Macau, adding the Asian LMS to the impressive list of competitions he took part in 2018.

The curious detail here is that Xu Wei already took part of an Asian LMS weekend, being part of the Python squad that didn’t align in the grid of the 3 Hours of Inje in 2014, a race that became famous for having only six cars competing.

And the GT Cup class wasn’t left alone too, as it progressed from having no entries to four Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars in a new initiative that involves the Asian LMS and the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, being called the Asian Le Mans Series Porsche Endurance Trophy.

In fact the Endurance Trophy will be a competition apart the GT Cup class at the 4 Hours of Shanghai, though the Porsche Cup entries will take part of both, with separate podium ceremonies taking place after the race too. With the final round of the Porsche Cup Asia taking place one week before the Asian LMS, the manufacturer gave support for those wanting to take part in the series, meaning that the cars they used in sprint racing could be used for endurance racing.

The entries will comprise four different squads, with LMP3 contender EKS Motorsports joining Earl Bamber Motorsports, Francis Tjia’s OpenRoad Racing and Modena Motorsports. Of the drivers confirmed, Graeme Dowsett was part of the only GTC entry last season with Team NZ, while Philippe Descombes is scaling down from the LMP3 class entry in the last Asian LMS season, while Benny Simonsen, brother of the late Allan Simonsen, and Francis Tjia have their good share of endurance racing in other competitions.

The 4 Hours of Shanghai will be held on November 25^th, and live transmission of qualifying and race will be made via the Asian LMS channel on YouTube.

PHOTOS: Asian Le Mans Series