This year’s Asian Le Mans Series season finale is set to be the most anticipated, ever. With the title races in each class going down to the wire, and a set of automatic Le Mans entries (which have never been so valuable) as the rewards for the victors, the result on Sunday will be extremely important.
The final championship standings will have ramifications for not only those competing in the Asian Le Mans Series but to those in the European Le Mans Series and IMSA too, who are hopeful of heading to France in June and taking up one of the 18 remaining spots on the entry.
In the 22 car field for the race in Sepang, only Spirit of Race and Jackie Chan DC Racing currently hold Le Mans entries (and both teams would like one more at least!), for everyone else still in the running, it all comes down to the four-hour race this weekend in the ACO’s game of Le Mans entry list musical chairs.
In LMP2, it’s advantage United Autosports as it stands, with the #22 Ligier of Paul Di Resta and Phil Hanson sitting on 62 points, 18 points clear of the #24 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier of Andrea Pizzitola and Harrison Newey. The #24 duo are the only real threat to United scoring an auto invite to Le Mans here, as the #4 ARC Bratislava Ligier is in third with a near-insurmountable 23-point deficit to close.
With just 26 points on offer (25 for the win and a point for pole), a lot would need to go wrong for the United and APR hopefuls for Miro Konopka’s team and to be in with a shout.
That’s no worry for the Slovakian-flagged team though, as Konopka’s crew of himself, Darren Burke and Ling Kang currently lead LMP2 Am, by 19 points over United’s second Ligier of Guy Cosmo, Patrick Byrne and Salih Yoluc. Algarve Pro’s #25 is still mathematically in with a chance, but with Anders Fjordbach, Chris McMurry and Mark Patterson sitting 21 points off the ARC trio, it’s a long shot for Stuart Cox’s team to get an invite to Le Mans via winning a class here.
In the class, the only change is the return of the Shanghai-winning Spirit of Race Ligier, which skipped Buriram due to commitments elsewhere for Alexander West. Despite the crew’s form and potential, the DNS in Thailand leaves West, Pipo Derani and Come Ledogar out of the title race.
LMP3 meanwhile, is the tightest class in the field, with Inter Europol’s Jakub Smiechowski and Martin Hippe still holding onto a class lead. A consistent run of a race win, two second place finishes and two poles this season have put them atop the standings with 62 points, eight points clear of United Autosports’ #2 trio of Chris Buncombe, Garrett Grist and Wayne Boyd who closed the gap by winning at Buriram.
Third, and still technically in the hunt is the second (#3) United Ligier of Kay van Berlo and Matt Bell, the duo a further 11 points back from the sister car and 19 of the Inter Europol pair. The first of the Ecurie Ecosse / Nielsen Racing Ligiers, the #79 of Colin Noble and Tony Wells is still in with a chance mathematically too, though a 20-point deficit will be hard to make up barring a spectacular bout of bad luck striking the other contenders.
It must be noted, however, that in the past two years, the final race of the Asian Le Mans Series has sprung some real surprises!
LMP3 also features two additional cars for this race, the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Ligier making a return for the first time since the Series opener at Shanghai with a fresh driver crew of James Winslow, Jake Parsons and Rick Yoon, and the ARC Bratislava Ginetta making a surprise appearance for the first time since the 2017/18 season.
Ginetta factory man Mike Simpson will race with Neale Muston and an as yet unannounced third driver in the ARC machine. There are no other notable changes in the entry since Thailand at the time of writing.
There have also been changes at R24, with the team’s all-female driver-crew now including Katherine Legge.
The final class to look at is GT, with Car Guy looking almost certain to clinch the title and the Japanese team’s first ever Le Mans berth. (The team has told DSC that should it get the entry, it will make the trip!)
James Calado, Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura hold a 24-point lead over the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Oz Negri Jnr and Francesco Piovanetti, who now have to hope for a DNF for the Car Guy crew and a race win to win the title.
The car count for GT3 remains at five, but with a couple of changes.
Audi factory driver Dries Vanthoor will return in the #88 TianShi Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3, while series newcomer Qi Peiwen (Aven) will drive the team’s sister car.
