The upcoming Asian Le Mans Series weekend in Dubai next month will see an expanded field of 47 cars take part, thanks to the addition of five GT entries.
In LMP2, there’s just one change to report across the 10 cars, that being the the addition of Porsche factory driver Julien Andlauer at Pure Rxcing in place of Louis Deletraz. Andlauer will compete alongside Alex Malykhin and Harry King in the #91 ORECA.
LMP3 sees four driver changes across the seven cars.
British racer Chris Short replaces James Dayson in the #15 RLR MSport Ligier JS P320-Nissan, joining fellow Briton Nick Adcock and Ian Aguilera.
Australia’s Griffin Peebles takes over in the #26 Bretton Racing Ligier from Dan Skocdopole, joining Danish duo Jens Moller and Theodor Jensen.
Championship leader Ultimate has also tweaked its line-up. Double Sepang race winner Matteo Quintarelli will have two new teammates in Dubai with Louis Stern and Leonardo Colavita stepping in for Bence Valint and Stephane Lemeret.
The GT class sees the most notable changes for the third and fourth races of the season, with the field swelling to 30 cars.
UAE-based team Dragon Racing has entered a pair of Ferrari 296 GT3s, with Todd Coleman, and Lorcan Hanafin (not Benjamin Pedersen, according to the team, who is listed) and Aaron Telitz in the #8 Ferrari, while Marco Pulcini, Nicola Marinangeli and Giacomo Altoe form an all-Italian crew in the #88.
British outfit Blackthorn is entering a second Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3, with Giacomo Petrobelli, Jonathan Adam and Charles Bateman racing the new #90 Vantage. Claude Bovet, Jason Ambrose and David McDonald will compete once again in the sister #19 car.
Germany’s Herberth Motorsport meanwhile, returns to the Asian Le Mans Series with a pair of Porsche 911 GT3 Rs. The #99 will see an all-German crew of Alfred and Robert Renauer share the car with Ralf Bohn. The crew of the #46 Herberth run 911 will be an all-Qatari crew of Ibrahim Al-Abdulghani, Abdulla Al-Khelaifi and Ghanim Al-Ali.
At Optimum Motorsport, its #77 McLaren sees Marvin Kirchhofer replacing Tom Gamble, the German racing alongside British duo Morgan Tillbrook and Tom Ikin.
Championship leader Winward Racing heads to Dubai with one change in the driver line-up too for its #81 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO. Race winners Gabriele Piana and Rinat Salikhov will be joined by Luca Stolz, the German replacing Jules Gounon.
Piana and Salikhov are ahead in the standings with 35 points, seven points ahead of the #28 AF Corse Ferrari trio Massimiliano Wiser, Manuel Franco and Davide Rigon.
Race 1 winner Car Guy will see two changes. Takeshi Kimura will replace Yudai Uchida and Casper Stevenson will replace Esteban Masson. Daniel Serra will be racing in the #57 Ferrari 296.
There’s real variety, with 10 Porsche 911 GT3 Rs, eight Ferrari 296 GT3s, six Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVOs, three Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3s, two McLaren 720S GT3s and a single Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2.
The pair of four-hour Asian Le Mans races in Dubai are set to run on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th February.
