The Asian Le Mans Series paddock relocated over the past couple of days to Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi, an hour or so ‘down the road’ from the Dubai Autodrome.
A steady stream of container trucks has been arriving over the past two days with the team members busy breaking down, then fitting out the garages at the two circuits, sited just 100km apart.
Whilst it’s a hectic relocation for all, the challenges for several teams have been and will be, more for some than others after some significant shunts over the past few days.
No fewer than three GT cars suffered chassis damage in Dubai.
The first was the #21 Car Collection Porsche, which was involved in a heavy shunt in practice that saw the 911 GT3R unable to take part in either race.
The team though, has turned around a replacement chassis in a super quick time. The car was ready for scrutinising yesterday (car pictured top) after the team took delivery of the chassis overnight Saturday/ Sunday at Yas Marina using the compound of the Yas Heat single-seater team to complete the build.
The damaged chassis meanwhile is ready to be shipped home for repair.
Dragon Racing is set to take delivery of the replacement chassis for its #8 Ferrari 296 GT3 midweek and will complete the rebuild from the car destroyed in a hit with the barriers from Todd Coleman that brought out the Red Flags during Saturday’s race at its home track. The damaged car had already been stripped down by Sunday morning ready for parts to be transferred to the new chassis.
The #82 AF Corse Ferrari, damaged in a qualifying shunt with Charly Samani at the wheel, also requires a replacement chassis, AF Corse expects theirs to arrive midweek and intends to build up the car in the Yas Marina garage in time for track action this weekend.
There’s a second EBM-entered Aston Martin listed for the season finale double-header, the three-man crew from the #89 at Sepang returning in a car numbered #98 – Marco Sorensen, Brenton Leitch and Anderson Tanoto.
In LMP3, Dan Dan Skočdopole replaces Griffin Peebles in the Dubai race-winning Bretton Racing Ligier.
And the #19 Blackthorn Aston Martin will see Reema Juffali replaced by Giacomo Petrobelli for the Yas Marina races.
If all goes well the entry should be back at 47 cars for the final weekend’s action.
After private testing on Thursday, Friday will see two 90-minute Free Practice sessions, the first at 16h30 GST/ 13h30 CET and the second at 19h45 GST / 16h45 CET
Saturday, we will see two Qualifying sessions, starting with the 15-minute GT session at 10h50 GST / 07h50 CET and the LMP session at 11h15 GST / 08h15 CET.
Race 1 will get underway on Saturday afternoon at 15h00 GST / 12h00 CET, with the chequered flag four hours later.
Sunday will see a 15-minute warm-up session at 11h30 followed by the final race of the 2024/25 season at 16h30 GST / 13h30 CET.
