The provisional entry for the opening-round of the 2015/ 2016 Asian Le Mans series has been released and features 13 cars.
Whilst that total is certainly not a breakthrough level for the series, there are signs of real potential for the relaunched Asian outlet for ACO rules racing.
The opening round will see a two hour race supporting the FIA WEC event in Japan next month, providing a world stage for the relaunch but offering a real calendar challenge for several potential entrants, sitting a week after Petit Le mans, and a week before the ELMS season finale in Estoril.
A handful more are expected for the second race in 2015 with additional cars looking certain to join for the two races scheduled for early 2016.
For now though there are entries of real interest and quality amongst the bakers dozen on the provisional list:
LMP2 (2 Cars)
8 Race Performance Oreca 03R Judd Nicolas Leutwiler, Shinji Nakano
99 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca 03 R Nissan William Lok, Tack Sung Kim
Both teams listed here are well-known to endurance racing followers.
Eurasia field the ex Boutsen Ginion Oreca here and are set to add a second car, the chassis currently doing ELMS duty, for the 2016 races. KCMG’s current WEC LMP2 championship leader and 2015 Le Mans class winner Richard Bradley will join the team for round two at Sepang.
Race Performance shift to an Asian programme after several years in the ELMS. The unique Judd engined 03-R certainly has the pace and the combination of talented Single seater racer Leutwiler and hugely experienced ex-F1 and LMP1 racer Shinji Nakano look tough to beat in Fuji.
LMP3 (3 cars)
1 DC Racing Ligier JS P3 Nissan David Cheng, Ho Pin Tung
88 Team AAI Adess 03 Nissan Tatsuya Tanigawa, Ryohei Sakaguchi
89 Team AAI Adess 03 Nissan Terry Fang, Masataka Yanagida
LMP3 makes its Asian debut in Fuji with a three car entry that is likely to grow for later rounds.
The race will see a world debut for the new Adess 03, and possibly, depending on the development programme, for the new Ligier JS P3 too, though a VdeV outing might beat Fuji to the punch!
Team AAI are the first customer for the Adess, the Taiwanese team, familiar to readers here both for their prior Asian Le Mans exploits, and for their breakthrough two car Le Mans appearance in 2015, field a pair of cars for drivers that they have coached through the GT ranks.
David Cheng meanwhile will debut his DC Racing effort with the new Ligier, the experienced gentleman racer will drive alongside the fast and experienced Ho Pin Tung, this efforts an early class favourite
GT (7 cars)
3 Clearwater Racing McLaren 650S GT3 Mok Weng Sun, Rob Bell, Keita Sawa
5 Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS TBA
7 ARC Bratislava Audi R8 LMS Miro Konopka, Pierre Kaffer
27 Nexus Infinity Ferrari 458 GT3 Adrian H. D’Silva, Dominic Ang, Joshua Hunt
38 Spirit of Race (AF Corse) Ferrari 458 GT3 Nasrat Muzayyin, Rui Aguas
91 Team AAI – HubAuto BMW Z4 GT3 Junsan Chen, Ollie Millroy, Dirk Muller
92 Team AAI – HubAuto BMW Z4 GT3 Han Chen Chen (Morris), Shinya Hosokawa, Hiroki Yoshimoto
Seven cars is a respectable early season entry and there’s real quality here too.
Two Ferraris, two Audis, two BMW’s and a McLaren make up an all GT three spec entry with no fewer than four factory nominated professional drivers in the mix.
Spirit of Race are, of course, a rebranded AF Corse and bring a Ferrari for Singaporean Nasrat Muzayyin, ably supported by full season WEC driver Rui Aguas, one of a pair of drivers that looks set to do double duty with the WEC.
Malaysian team Nexus Infinity field the second Ferrari for two local drivers and Australian Joshua Hunt.
Another European endurance racing regular, ARC Bratislava make the leap to Asia with team owner Miro Konopka joined by the other WEC double duty man, the mercurial Pierre Kaffer in an Audi R8 LMS.
Major Asian GT racing players, Absolute Racing, enter the second R8 with their drivers listed as TBA at present.
Team AAI complete a four car entry with a pair of BMW Z4 GT3s. They took the top route two positions in last year’s series and are aiming to win again with their lead car featuring 2015 Le Mans racer Junsan Chen, supported by the impressive Ollie Millroy and BMW factory driver Dirk Muller.
The second AAI BMW also features a 2015 Le Mans veteran, Han Chen (Morris) Chen, alongside a pair of Japanese team-mates.
Finally there’s a solo McLaren, this a current spec 650S GT3 for crack Singaporean outfit Clearwater Racing with McLaren factory driver Rob Bell joining GT Asia regular Mok Weng Sun and two time Macau GT winner, Carrera Cup Asia winner, and 2015 Dubai 24 class winner Keita Sawa.
GT Am (1 car)
51 KCMG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Paul Ip/ TBA
KCMG team owner Paul Ip is listed in the only GT Am entry, at 911 GT3 Cup. This class for one make racers, created as a stepping stone into the series.
