Nielsen Racing took a dominant win in the first of two four hour races at Dubai Autodrome to start the quick-fire 2022 Asian Le Mans Series.
Rodrigo Sales, who raced with the Nielsen team in LMP3 in Asia last season, returned as the anchor for the squad’s new LMP2 effort with the #4 Oreca and started the race from pole position, earned on Saturday morning by Ben Hanley.
A strong start from the American was almost ruined by a half spin in the final turn as he worked to fend off a challenge from Graff Racing’s Eric Trouillet. That dropped the Nielsen car down to third place but the interruption did not faze Sales, he reeled off an impressive stint to hand the car over to Matt Bell in a close second place after an impressive stint.
Bell was immediately on the attack and caught, passed and rapidly pulled away from the Graff car, which, in turn, was pulling clear of the #49 High Class Racing Oreca.
Thereafter the #4 was dominant, Bell pulling away at will despite the best efforts of the #39 and #49 crews, both entered in LMP2 AM with two Bronze-ranked drivers apiece. His triple stint saw a near three lap gap opened up – aided in part by the LMP2 Am rules dictating a minimum pit stop time that saw those cars stopping for some 30 seconds longer for each trip down pit lane!
Ben Hanley completed the rout, the #4 finishing four laps clear of their competitors having executed a near perfect race.
The #39 car came home second overall and LMP2 AM winner for Trouillet, David Droux and Sebastien Page after a late scare, the team struggling to fix the mandatory photoluminescent number panel on the left side of the car, eventually opting to tape a pair of torches to the number panel to effect a quick enough fix to keep them out of the clutches of the High Class Racing car which, after after Dennis Andersen and Kevin Weeds, had Anders Fjordbach pushing hard to the finish.
Drama enveloped the #44 ARC Bratislava Ligier JS P217 Gibson of Miro Konopka after a stop on track in the opening hour. The team restarted, but in the second hour were given a 10 second time penalty added to a pit stop for overtaking off track. Despite the challenges, the Slovakian outfit recovered to third in LMP2 Am, and fourth overall.
Dominance didn’t turn into victory in LMP3 for DKR Engineering, who led the class for most of the four hours, before their Duqueine stopped in the final minutes of the race and brought out a full course yellow. This after much of the team’s early race dominance was lost in a long pit-stop with attention under the rear deck of the Duqueine, an overheating started motor the issue, a subsequent battery issue the final straw for the effort.
Victory was taken in class by #3 CD Sport Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Michael Jensen, Nick Adcock, and Edouard Cauhaupe, ahead of their sister car of Christophe Cresp, Antoine Doquin and Steven Palette in the #27 CD Sport entry, a remarkable result for a team that has no full season deal beyond the four races in the UAE!
A late race battle between the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P320 and #22 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine D08 – Nissan saw the #26 take the win after the Rinaldi car pitted for a last-gasp splash of fuel.
Bad luck also hit two more cars likely to have been involved in the podium battles, the #8 Nielsen Racing Ligier JS P320 of former Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 champions Tony Wells, and Colin Noble, who had the lead after the first round of pit stops, before a broken exhaust took a result from the outfit. An extended pit stop also saw the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier JS P320 drop out of podium positions with the Polish squad another to fall foul of a failed light panel.
The #21 Konrad Motorsport Ginetta had a solid run in the midfield before it too fell foul of a starter motor refusing to perform its primary (and only) task after a spin for Shaun Thong. The car though did struggle back to the pits and was a classified finisher.
Much of the real battling action came from the 22-car GT field (The #74 Kessel Ferrari withdrawn from this weekend due to driver illness).
The #7 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Brendan Iribe, Ollie Millroy and Ben Barnicoat took the win ahead of Rino Mastronardi, David Perel and Davide Rigon in the #55 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 after a stellar battle between Rigon and Barnicoat that saw the Englishman finally settle matters with an emphatic pass up the inside at T1. Rigon did all he could to hang on but the McLaren driver kept his advantage to the flag, both cars retaining their positions despite post race time penalties for both for drivers time infringements (in the McLaren’s case the 4 hours plus one lap Asian LMS rule catching the team out with Barnicoat aboard just too long).
The #17 AF Corse of Louis Prette, Vincent Abril and Conrad Grunewald took the final podium slot after Abril held off a storming chase from the #42 Optimum McLaren of Joe Osborne, shared with Nick Moss and Andrew Watson, Watson having a fine run through a tightly packed field to put the car into contention for a podium.
It was a less fortunate race for #48 SAALOCIN by Kox Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Nico Pronk, Stephane Kox and Peter Kox, who made up ten positions before contact with #77 D’Station Racing saw them pit into retirement with damage and the Japanese team serve a drive through penalty.
In GT Am, the #20 SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes AMG GT3 of Valentin Pierburg, Ian Loggie and Mikael Grenier dominated to take class honours from Roman Ziemian, Francesco Zollo and Axcil Jefferies in the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 and #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Mario Van Bohlen, Henry Walkenhorst and Jorg Breuer.
