Lahaye Family Values
Jean Baptiste Lahaye is missing the 4 Hours of Fuji as his wife is due to give birth imminently. He’ll be back in the #35 Panis Barthez Ligier Judd for the final two Asian Le Mans Series races of the season.
Car Guy
The Ferrari 488 GT3 is the third different GT3 car campaigned by Car Guy in three different Championships this season with the team fielding a Lamborghini in Blancpain Asia and a new Honda NSX GT3 in Super GT. The DSC crew visited the team’s workshop, less than a kilometre from the circuit entrance in Fuji with the Asian Le Mans Series TV crew on Thursday.
More Woes For R24, All Female Effort
It’s been another tough weekend so far for the all-female R24 crew. The intended two-person all-Japanese crew for this weekend’s action was disrupted after a substantial shunt for new addition Anna Inotsume in Free Practice 2, the Super Taikyu racer hitting the barriers hard after losing control after hitting a kerb in T14.
Whilst the damage to the Ligier was easily fixable – a broken front bodywork section the major issue – Inotsume was sent to a local hospital after the normal precautionary checks at the circuit. She will not race this weekend and was replaced – at very late notice – by Mazda single-make racer Sayaka Kato. Ms Kato ran for the first time in qualifying in the newly reliveried #50 Ligier.
Fushida San
Now semi-retired, one time Chairman of Dome Cars Hiroshi Fushida is attending his second consecutive Asian Le Mans race supporting his friend, LMP3 rookie and ex Inter Proto Racer Nobuya Yamanaka.
Fushida makes it (at least) two ex F1 racers at Fuji this weekend (alongside Paul di Resta, Olivier Panis is not here in Fuji) the now 72 year old entered the Dutch and British Grand Prixs in 1975 in the Maki, though did not start either race. Perhaps a more happy memory that year was his fifth place overall finish (and a class win) in the Bathurst 1000 in a plucky little Mazda RX3.
