After the dramas of the start of the week track action finally got underway for the Asian Le Mans Series with a trio of free practice sessions around the Inje circuit on Friday and Saturday.
There were some changes to the entry to confirm with the #24 Oak Racing Total Morgan now listed with a Judd engine and the #70 Taisan Ken Endless Ferrari 458 now listed as a GTE car.
There were now drivers replacing the ubiquitous TBAs in several cars too.
Kita Sawa joined Frank Yu and Stefan Mucke aboard the #007 Craft AMR Vantage, The #37 BBT Lamborghini saw Anthony Liu joined by Davide Rizzo and Massimiliano Wiser.
The #91 AAI McLaren musters Chen Jun San and Akira Iida whilst the sister #92 car fields Somchai Saksirivatekul, Morris Chen Chen and Akihiro Asai.
Finally the #26 Taisan Porsche sees Kyousuke Mineo and Yukinori Taniguchi in control.
Free Practice 1
Friday’s first session stayed dry, but a heavy downpour in between sessions gave the teams a bit more to think about when they went out for the second. Combined with the 19 turns and some steep gradient the Free Practice sessions gave the drivers and cars a taste of the endurance that will be required during Sunday’s 3 hour race.
In Free Practice 1 just 9 cars took to the track with no sign of the pair of one make Lamborghinis from the initial entry list.
KCMG were the top LMP2 team. Their #18 Morgan-Nissan recorded a quickest lap time of 1:27.002 and a top speed of 174.12 km/h. AF Corse were the top GT team in their #77 Ferrari 458 GT3 with a fastest lap time of 1:32.704 and top speed of 163.41 km/h
Free Practice 1 Times
18 LMP2 KCMG Morgan Nissan 1:27.002
24 LMP2 Oak Racing Total Morgan Judd 1:27.139
77 GTC AF Corse Ferrari 458 1:32.704
007 GTC Craft AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage 1:34.201
70 GTE Taisan Ken Endless Ferrari 458 1:34.813
37 GTC BBT Lamborghini Gallardo 1:35.324
91 GTC AAI Rstrada McLaren MP 4-12C 1:35.477
92 GTC AAI Rstrada McLaren MP 4-12C 1:37.286
26 GTC Taisan Ken Endless Porsche 996 GT300 1:40.368
Free Practice 2
The early afternoon downpour before Free Practice 2 shook things up somewhat and Craft Racing AMR’s #007 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 headed the session.
On a greasy track Craft Racing drove superbly to record a fastest lap time of 1:33.922 and top speed of 161.29 km/h. OAK Racing led the LMP2 cars in their #24 Morgan Judd. This made more comfortable by KCMG’s technical issues just four laps into Akash Nandy’s start in afternoon session. OAK Racing clocked a fastest lap of 1:36.367 and top speed of 157.20.
Free Practice 2 Times
007 GTC Craft AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage 1:33.922
77 GTC AF Corse Ferrari 458 1:34.870
70 GTE Taisan Ken Endless Ferrari 458 1:35.302
91 GTC AAI Rstrada McLaren MP 4-12C 1:35.325
24 LMP2 Oak Racing Total Morgan Judd 1:36.367
37 GTC BBT Lamborghini Gallardo 1:37.769
92 GTC AAI Rstrada McLaren MP 4-12C 1:37.955
26 GTC Taisan Ken Endless Porsche 996 GT300 1:41.014
18 LMP2 KCMG Morgan Nissan 1:45.802
Free Practice 3
Saturday morning saw the teams take further opportunity to dial in their cars and drivers ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session.
There was some early morning moisture in the air and on the track to contend with, but the session was free of rain and the quick times achieved reflected this. OAK Racing’s Ho-Pin Tung clocked the fastest lap time of the morning – 1:25.715 – on his 5th lap in OAK Racing’s #24 Morgan-Judd, as OAK Racing continued their impressive form in the Free Practice sessions and lead the LMP2 teams. Ho-Pin’s lap was the fastest of all the 3 Hours of Inje sessions so far.
Craft Racing built on their strong outing in Free Practice 2 yesterday afternoon to again top the GT teams. They recorded a fastest time of 1:33.594 in their 4th lap. With AF Corse the next fastest GT team, and the rest not far behind, the battle amongst all the GT cars remains fierce.
Free Practice 3 Times
24 LMP2 Oak Racing Total Morgan Judd 1:25.715
18 LMP2 KCMG Morgan Nissan 1:28.708
007 GTC Craft AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage 1:33.594
77 GTC AF Corse Ferrari 458 1:34.005
91 GTC AAI Rstrada McLaren MP 4-12C 1:34.417
70 GTE Taisan Ken Endless Ferrari 458 1:34.504
92 GTC AAI Rstrada McLaren MP 4-12C 1:35.699
26 GTC Taisan Ken Endless Porsche 996 GT300 1:37.606
