Another sub 10 car grid was a bitter blow to the clearly struggling Asian Le Mans Series for round 3 in Shanghai. There was a welcome addition of a Clearwater Racing entered Ferrari 458 with GT ASIA regulars Mok Weng Sun and Keita Sawa who were joined by the very capable Matt griffin. Even so the grid was just 8 cars.
Qualifying had seen OAK Racing and EURASIA Motorsport do battle once more, Oak coming out on top. Ho-Pin Tung taking pole by just over a tenth with a 1:39.860 from James Winslow.
The CN class was all too easy for CRAFT-Bamboo again. Kevin Tse recording their best time of 1:46.545 a full 1.6 seconds ahead of the only other competitor in class the Team Avelon Wolf.
GT at least provided some relative depth and variety. With Team AAI’s usual SLS and 2 BMW Z4s and the addition of the Clearwater Ferrari. Qualifying saw the SLS take class pole, Takeshi Tsuchiya posting a time good enough for 3rd overall on the grid and a full 8 tenths ahead of Jorg Muller who was 2nd in class in the first of the BMWs. Some way off the pace was the Clearwater Ferrari. But with GT ASIA sharing the bill at Shanghai Sawa and Weng Sun could be excused for easing off a little as they fight for the title in the all GT championship.
Race
I’d love to say that this one was a classic but it very much wasn’t. OAK led from the start with David Cheng and by the time the pit stops came round the lead was over a lap and never got any closer.
In CN the race was made interesting through incident and misfortune rather than racing. The Ligier and the Wolf had remained on the same lap with the CRAFT-Bamboo car leading much of the way. That was until Kevin Tse had a moment to himself and then pitted immediately afterwards. This gave the Wolf the lead but they themselves had issues late on and due to an electrical problem relinquished the lead to allow the CRAFT-Bamboo Ligier to take the win.
In GT the Mercedes had led early on with all the cars remaining on the same lap. However around middle distance Matt Griffin took over the Clearwater Ferrari and chased down the Mercedes to take a lead that they would never let go of taking a well-deserved victory by a full lap.
It certainly seems to be worrying times for this young series. The announcement over the weekend that the championship would not be going to Thailand so the teams and organisers could focus on the final round at Sepang is worrying. One reason being what that decision has essentially done for the championship. That very decision alone decided 3 of the 4 titles. The only champions not being crowned by the removal of the Buriram race is the GT class. It always leaves a very empty feeling when a back room decision decides a title, not a race.
It is very apparent the interest in the sport and the endurance element of it is extremely high. Indeed anyone who has been to Le Mans in the past 25 years will have witnessed the fanatical support the Japanese fans bring to La Sarthe. Here’s hoping that the Asian Le Mans Series can take stock and come back fighting next year because there is some fantastic unearthed talent in the Asian continent and a serious passion for endurance racing.
Result
1 1 LMP2 OAK RACING TEAM TOTAL Ho-Pin TUNG / David CHENG 102 Laps 3:00:01.703
2 27 LMP2 EURASIA MOTORSPORT PU Jun Jin/ John HARTSHORNE/ James WINSLOW +1 Lap
3 33 GT CLEARWATER RACING Mok Weng SUN /Keita SAWA/ Matt GRIFFIN + 5 Laps
4 91 GT TEAM AAI Jun San CHEN/ Tatsuya TANIGAWA/ Ollie MILLROY + 6 Laps
5 90 GT TEAM AAI YU Lam / Takeshi TSUCHIYA/ Takamitsu MATSUI + 6 Laps
6 92 GT TEAM AAI Morris CHEN / Jorg MULLER/ Marco SEEFRIED + 7 Laps
7 77 CN CRAFT-BAMBOO RACING Naoki YOKOMIZO / Kevin TSE/ Samson CHAN + 18 Laps
8 21 CN TEAM AVELON FORMULA Guglielmo BELOTTI / Denis LIAN + 18 Laps
