Consistency seems to be the word in the Asian Le Mans Series, especially with the 2019/2020 season calendar being announced some good months ahead of the start and with only one track change compared to 2018/2019, and a single date change too.
Since the launch of the new iteration of the Asian LMS, the calendar don’t go through radical changes from a season to another, and while only a change was registered for the next season, this is one with a lot of history on it. For the first time in the Asian LMS history, Japan won’t be featured in the calendar, as Fuji Speedway was moved out while The Bend Motorsport Park in Australia gets in and brings more expansion to the series.
Fuji Speedway and Japan are part of the Asian LMS since the late 90s where the plans of an Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series were brought to light, passing through the Japan Le Mans Challenge, the 1000 km of Okayama until the current stability of the series, which saw the most varied specs appear there, like LMP1, various iterations of LMP2, LMGT1, LMGT2, LMGTE, LMP3, GT3 and even CN.
Australia was part of the initial APLMS plans, even though the Race of a Thousand Years in the last day of the year 2000 was part of the American Le Mans Series, and since then no ACO-ruled races were held in the country, which means that the race at The Bend is the realization of the plan that was idealized almost 20 years ago by Don Panoz.
The Bend joins the calendar as the second race of the 2019/2020 season on January 12th, taking the slot of Buriram, which is moved to be the season finale on February 23rd, a week after the Sepang round on February 15th. Shanghai will open the season and will be the only race in 2019, to be held on November 24th, with all dates being thought in order to avoid clashes with major events in Asia, Australia and around the World, such as the Bathurst 12 Hour, the Sebring 12 Hours and the ROLEX 24 to name a few.
The next will continue with the race lengths of the current one, meaning all races will be 4 hours long.
2019/2020 Asian Le Mans Series calendar
November 24th 2019 - Shanghai
January 12th 2020 - The Bend
February 15th 2020 - Sepang
February 23rd 2020 - Buriram
PHOTO: Asian Le Mans Series
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