46 cars are on track from the initial 47-car entry, the EBM Aston Martin withdrawn with the team unable to field a (mandatory) Bronze-rated driver.
There are a number of driver changes too from Sepang in December, affecting all three classes:
Bijoy Garg steps into the #43 Inter Europol Oreca, replacing Nick Cassidy.
In LMP3, the #85 R-Ace GP Duqueine sees an entirely changed trio with Lena Buhler, Danial Frost, and Shahan Sarkissian racing in the UAE.
And in GT3, there are changes affecting four cars:
The #28 WRT BMW switched from UNX Racing by Team WRT to simply, Team WRT and sees Russian racer Sergey Stolyarov (Bronze) and Italian Silver Gabriele Piana replace the Belgian pairing from Sepang.
The #54 AF Corse Ferrari sees Thomas Floersch and Alessandro Pier Guidi replaced by the Dutch pairing Nigel Schoonderwoerd and Yelmer Buurman.
United Autosports’ #59 McLaren sees Andrey Mukozov and Alexay Nesov replace Mark Rosser and Garnet Patterson.
The #77 Proton Competition Porsche sees Dutchman Huub van Eindhoven replace Japanese racer Kiyoto Fujinami.
There was a very late change too on Saturday morning with Fred Poordad suffering back pain and unable to drive the #30 RD Limited Oreca replaced at the last minute by locally-based Brit James Sweetnam, who had his first laps in an LMP2 car in the 15-minute qualifying session!
“Remarkably, this is the same garage where I first drove a Radical,” James told DSC. “It’s a very steep learning curve, but we got through the session, and I have a little time to understand where some big steps can be taken before the first race.”
Fred Poordad meanwhile, looks set to be en route to Europe after Chris Ried recommended a specialist to treat his back pain, the American hoping to be back in action in time for the final weekend of the Asian Le Mans Series season at Yas Marina next weekend.
Looking for ‘two in a row’ here is the CrowdStrike Racing by APR squad after the team took a hard-fought LMP2 win at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona last weekend.
The team will be looking to add to that silverware tomorrow in Race 1. And all will hope that any trophies obtained don’t suffer the misfortune that befell the IMSA item that is here at the circuit sporting a dent after falling from a car door post race.
There is a massive amount of development taking place around the circuit with significant residential structures in build along the start/ finish straight, the outside of T5 and down at the lowest point of the circuit too. Also near completion is a significant expansion to the circuit ‘Technopark inside T1/ T2.
This facility is set to look radically different in the coming months.
Supporting the Asian Le Mans Series once again in Dubai is F4 UAE and FR Middle East. Neither though will be present at Yas Marina where the Gulf Pro Car and Radical Series will support.
Amongst the familiar faces in the single-seater paddock are Tomas Enge, Duncan Tappy and Warren Hughes, the latter-named understood to have been on the shortlist of drivers considered as the replacement for Fred Poordad, Warren now Bronze-ranked!
