Very cold temperatures continued to be a feature at Fuji Speedway, the mountain still shrouded by cloud though clearer skies, but even lower temperatures are predicted for the weekend.
The first Free practice session saw trouble for the ARC Bratislava Ligier JS P2, team owner Miro Konopka into the barrier and damaging the car front and rear, the damage is fixable though, Konopka entirely unharmed.
TKS’s Ginetta LMP3 missed the untimed private test session with a rogue electrical issue, Shinyo Sano’s loyal crew though worked hard to track down the issue and had the car on track for the timed session on Friday afternoon, Yuta Kamimura on the pace, third fastest in class.
Jackie Chan DC Racing are set to announce additional drivers for the team’s #7 Oreca 05 Nissan for Buriram and Sepang to join Jazeman Jaafar and David Cheng. The TKS team have named Takuya Shirasaki as their third driver, the ex Blancpain Asia racer has raced the Ginetta before, at the Road to Le Mans this year, his Bronze status means that the team are good to go for the race on Sunday.
Asian Le Mans Series Managing Director Cyrille Taesch Wahlen was delighted with the news confirmed last week that Total have signed a strategic partnership agreement with the ACO across all of their major endurance racing Series, it will see the Asian Series relationship continue to grow:
“Total is a major partner that has supported the Asian Le Mans Series right from the start. This global five-year agreement confirms Total’s strategic interest for the Asian continent and proves its confidence in the championship. It will also enable us to pursue our development together as we continue to improve the ways in which we meet the needs of our partner.”
The first Free Practice session was topped by Team BBT’s #37 Ligier JS P2, Pipo Derani three quarters of a second up on the faster of the two Jackie Chan DC Racing Orecas with a 1:33.324, Thomas Laurent fastest in the #8 car with 1:34.043, Jazeman Jaafar completing the top three with a 1:35.151
In LMP3 the times were topped by the #18 KCMG Ligier JS P3, Josh Burdon with a 1:37.469 well clear of James Winslow in the #65 Viper Niza Racing Ligier with the TKS Ginetta third fastest.
FIST Team AAI’s #91 BMW topped GT, Jesse Krohn edging out the Tianshi Audi with a 1:39.383. The team’s new Ferrari 488 GT3, supported here by crew members from Kessel Racing struggled to produce a competitive lap time in the session whilst Guy Cosmo was stranded out on track in the #6 Jackie Chan DC Racing Ligier JS P3 after just 9 laps completed in the session.
Qualifying and the race will again be shown live with full English language coverage across a range of platforms including the Series You Tube channel and Facebook Page with Motor Trend On Demand joining the broadcast channels also taking the live feed which again features the team of Nadia Nash, Jeevan Selvanathan and The DSC Editor Graham Goodwin.
