All 36 cars set to contest the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series are safely on-site at Dubai Autodrome with testing starting later today for the first time being a mixed grid of LMP2, LMP3 and GT3 cars lapping the full Class One circuit.
In LMP2 the seven-car grid provides several newsworthy snippets.
The first entry into LMP2 from Phoenix Racing signals the starting gun for a new era in the class as we are set to see multiple teams ad drivers dipping a toe into the class as the motorsport world adjusts to the likely explosion in factor interest in top-class prototype racing in the next half-decade.
The appearance of reigning FIA WEC GT Drivers World Champion Nicki Thiim here in Dubai and Audi GT Factory driver Kelvin van der Linde at Yas Marina are just the latest examples of the pro driver marketplace beginning to adapt to a very different near future.
On the team front, there is clear involvement here from key personnel from High Class Racing including Race Engineer Franck Larue.
We’re set to see the team’s entry for the European Le Mans Series confirmed later this week with their ex-Cool Racing Oreca – driver squad TBA!
Eurointernational are back with the same Ligier LMP2 that the team entered at the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours, with an all Am crew and one minor but, for Antonio Ferrari, significant change, the team, for the first time in their history, now Italian rather than US-flagged!
The #11 is one of two LMP2 Am entries.
JOTA have their 2021 livery on public display for the first time here, the pearlescent dark green will become familiar through the season with the team’s two-car WEC squad.
The #28 crew seems a standout prospect for the season with Sean Galael joins by Stoffel Vandoorne and Tom Blomqvist, again an example of drivers looking to future motorsport prospects as well as chasing success in the present.
On the other side of the JOTA, garage is the Rolex 24 winning Era Motorsport crew, the team composed of Rolex-toting duo Kyle Tilley and Dwight Merriman plus Greek racer Andreas Laskaratos.
Tilley and Merriman are likely to be featured on the ELMS full season entry as well as having confirmed their full-season presence in the remainder of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship LMP2 calendar with a car apiece in Europe and the USA.
At present the likelihood is that the ELMS effort will be supported by IDEC Sport, rather than JOTA here, though the entry will be in the Era Motorsport name.
Racing Team India are other headline effort here too, the #64 car supported by Algarve Pro Racing with Narain Karthikeyan looking to sweep away the memory of the pre-race accident that robbed him of a start opportunity at Le Mans in 2009 for the Kolles Audi effort. Young team-mate Arjun Maini is looking to put down further markers in LMP2 after impressing in the ELMS, the Dubai weekend is something of a family affair as Arjun’s younger brother Kush is competing in F3 Asia which shares the billing this weekend.
Bronze driver Naveen Rao is actually the Sportscar title winner of the trio, the now US citizen the reigning IMSA Prototype Challenge Champion, a title he shared with Matt All, racing here too, albeit in a Nielsen LMP3 Ligier.
That leaves the pair of G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 (rebadged Oreca) entries with both supported by Algarve Pro racing, a relationship which will continue through 2021 in Europe too.
The #25 sees returning APR driver John Falb, one of the benchmark LMP2 ‘gentleman’ rivers, sharing with a pair of newcomers to the class, Rui Pinto de Andrade and 17-year-old Argentinian Franco Colapinto, watch for young Franco to impress if the transition to mixed class racing goes smoothly, his recent and rapid progress in junior formula cars a marker of massive potential.
The sister #26 meanwhile sees another potentially impressive trio, ex DTM raced Ferdinand Habsburg tamed with returning LMP2 racer Rene Bider, who raced in the Inter-Europol Ligier LMP2 last season, and LMP2 debutant Yifei Ye who arrives in Dubai after a dominant title-winning season in the Euroformula Open (which supports the International GT Open).
