Even the first
iteration of the Asian Le Mans Series
in 2009 wouldn’t look as promising as the 2016/2017 season in terms
of entries, firstly with the news of 31 full season entries and now
with 33 cars confirmed for the first round of the competition, the 4
Hours of Zhuhai.
As stated in the
announcement of the full season grid, for Zhuhai the most noticeable
point is the incredible growth of LMP3
entrants, going from 3 cars in 2015/2016 to 11 cars for the season to
start. The LMP2
class keeps the 4 car count from the last season while the GT
class its good numbers with 16 cars, while CN
and GT Cup
have their lone runners.
The class champions
are returning to defend their titles but with some differences in
lineups and cars. LMP2 champions from Race
Performance will appear with an
entirely new trio as CN racers Giorgio Maggi and Denis Lian join
Struan Moore. DC Racing
reallocated Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent to their LMP2 entry,
leaving only the team owner David Cheng in their Ligier
JS P3 at the moment. GT champions from
Clearwater Racing
will trust in former team member Matt Griffin to join Mok Weng Sun
and Keita Sawa in their new Ferrari 488
GT3. Le Mans entrant Team AAI comes as
usual with their fleet, featuring four cars spread between two
McLarens, a BMW and a Mercedes.
The European force
comes in a good number to compete in Asia, as Algarve
Pro Racing brings a pair of Ligier
JS P2 models for the LMP2 class, ARC
Bratislava is coming with a pair of
Ginetta LMP3
cars, Tockwith Motorsports
is appearing with a Ligier JS P3, and finally Vincenzo
Sospiri Racing will be in the GT class
with a single Lamborghini Huracán GT3,
and due to some Asian driver appearances with their Huracán Super
Trofeo in the Italian GT Championship, probably at least one of them
will fill the TBA slots at the moment.
But the Asian Le
Mans Series was also successful in capturing some big names in the
region, with teams like Absolute Racing, BBT Racing and KCMG
returning to the competition, and FFF Racing by ACM making its Asian
LMS debut as they are gradually expanding their operations around
Asia and the World.
The 4 Hours of
Zhuhai will occur on October 28th-30th,
being this the debut of the increased race length in the series.
PHOTO: Asian Le Mans Series
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