Algarve Pro close in on final Asian Le Mans Series line-up
Algarve Pro Racing are almost set for their two car LMP2 effort in the forthcoming 2018/19 Asian Le Mans Series with five of the six seats already filled.
Harrison Newey will return to the Series he won last season but switches to the team he now races for in ELMS, he’s sharing a Ligier JS P2 with Ate Dirk de Jong and a yet to be named Pro Driver.
The second car will see the interesting line-up of Mark Patterson, Chris McMurry and ELMS High Class Racing driver Anders Fjordbach combine for a tilt at the LMP2 Am title, with an Auto Le Mans 24 entry on offer for the sub-class winner.
Ultimate eye potential LMP2 switch
Matthieu Lahaye was busy prepping the Ultimate Norma M30 ahead of the weekend’s ELMS action but was happy to chat about the team’s plans, not just in the Asian Le Mans Series (where the regular Ultimate trio will contest the four-race Asian Le Mans Series season in a Panis Barthez-run Ligier JS P2 Judd) but into the 2019 Europen season.
“The Asian Series is a big part of our current available budget,” said Lahaye, but we know what the task is now over the winter, and we are definitely targeting LMP2, though that will take a lot of hard work to pull together the backing.”
Rebuild underway for #2 United Ligier
The incident in Free Practice 1 which brought out the red flag after contact on John Falb’s #2 United Autosports Ligier from Romano Ricci in the #19 M Racing/ YMR Ligier has left the United Autosports team scrambling to rebuild their charge.
The heavy impact to the rear of Falb’s car saw the car turned around and actually running backwards briefly, smoke emitting from the air box!
The rear of the car had required a full replacement including a fresh Nissan V8, work progressing well when DSC popped by this evening.
Alpines on the support bill
The Alpine Elf Europa Cup is on the support bill this weekend, the new one-make series for ‘Cup’ spec versions of Alpine’s A110 sportscar featuring an 18 car entry here.
Lanan tops Le Mans Cup practice
British team Lanan Racing was the class of the field in yesterday’s Le Mans Cup practice sessions at Spa, topping both sessions.
In FP1, with rain coming down, the team’s Norma produced a best time was a 2:35.003, four tenths up on the nearest competitior the #22 United Autosports Ligier. Then in FP2, with the track dry and the sun out, Duncan Tappy set the fastest time of the day, a 2:14.837, almost six tenths faster than Colin Noble’s best efforts in the #79 Ecurie Ecosse Ligier which finished up second.
In the GT3 ranks, AF Corse’s #71 Ferrari 488 topped the first session with a 2:38.971, before Kessel Racing’s #77 Ferrari bettered the time and headlined FP2 with a 2:18.897 from Andrea Piccini.
H24 Presentation Later Today
This afternoon will see the official presentation of the GreenGT prepped H24 programme by the ACO – The team has a fully prepped Hydrogen fuelled car here, seen running on the circuit briefly yesterday morning by the DSC crew, the car looking like a blend between an LMP and extreme GT car.
