The Asian Le Mans
Series is making all efforts possible to keep its good momentum
and improve on that for the next season as new regulations and a
change into race length are the highlights for the immediate future.
The Buriram event is set
to feature a longer race than the usual format of four hours as the 6
Hours of Buriram will take the Thailand's National Childrens Day on
January 13th, 2018, to repeat the scene showed in 2016,
when the holiday factor attracted about 100.000 spectators to the
track to watch the race. The calendar for the 2017/2018 season is
more well distributed in terms of dates as to avoid clashes with the
other championships of the region, with the possible issue being the
Sepang round on the same weekend of the Bathurst 12 Hours, which
should make some GT3 teams ponder where they will race.
About the GT class,
a fourth invite to the 24 Hours of Le Mans may be a good boost for
those competing now and those who are willing to enter, as the GT-Am
subclass will have a return to the series as demand for a
championship for gentleman drivers was considered good to propose
this. If entry numbers in the subclass prove to be satisfactory the
LM automatic entry will be given, and if not the invite will go to
the second best GT class team. Whether we will see the comeback of
the GT Cup cars or a GT3-only subclass is still to be announced.
In the LMP side the news
are for the future, as the previous-spec LMP2 cars will
receive an extension into the series beyond the introduction of the
current-spec Gibson-engine machines, with the older prototypes set to
be allocated in a Gentleman Trophy for Bronze drives from 2019/2020
onwards.
The full calendar will
have the following rounds:
October 29th –
4 Hours of Zhuhai
December 3rd –
4 Hours of Fuji
January 13th –
6 Hours of Buriram
February 4th –
4 Hours of Sepang
PHOTO: Asian Le Mans Series
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