Asian Le Mans Series

Asian Le Mans Series – Sora Racing wins race 1

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat

Christophe Tinseau and Shinji Nakano are the first winners of the Asian Le Mans Series. The French-Japanese Sora Racing (Pescarolo Sport) pair crossed the finish line in first place after the Aston Martin Racing #007 had to make two unplanned pit stops in order to repair damaged louvers.

At 12.30 the red lights went out for the opening race of the weekend Jonny Cocker kept cool and into the first corner he had already taken a decent lead over his rivals. Behind him there was some hard braking by the Sora Racing Pescarolo, resulting in a loss of position.

Further down the field in GT2 the Robertson Racing Ford GT had a great start, getting from P7 to P3. The oldest car in the field, the Scuderia Forme Porsche 996 GT3 RSR, came to a halt at turn 9 after only a few laps. Despite several attempts to get it going again it was unable to move.

Fifteen minutes into the race the Drayson Lola had a four second lead over Lapierre. In GT2 the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing #92 had meanwhile moved into second place, right in between the two Felbermayr Porsches. GT1 pole sitter Larbre Competition lost the battle with the Lamborghini #69 and dropped to second in class, with the #68 Lamborghini closing in.

Lapierre then started to close the gap on Cocker and was soon back within a second. His attempts to get ahead of the Lola Judd were however hampered when he hit traffic on multiple occasions.
But soon the Oreca 01 was in the lead when the #87 came into the pit. After refueling the crew took the front of the car to replace it, a result of 1 non-working headlight. Minutes later the car returned to the track, but way down the order.

Behind Lapierre Mücke was able to catch up with the Oreca, with Tinseau in the Pescarolo not far away. Unfortunately for them traffic played an important role in the proceedings and made it impossible for Mücke to close in on the leader.

The battle for the GT2 lead between the BMW and #77 Porsche intensified and the tw cars raced around the track in a perfect game of cat-and-mouse. Müller briefly moved into the lead after some 45 minutes, but a few corners later Lieb was back in front.

With the regular pit stops taking place the lead changed a few times, but when all had completed their stop it was the #007 Lola Aston in the lead. JLOC meanwhile saw its #68 Lamborghini come to a halt at the back of the track. It was the second retirement in the race.

OAK Racing’s lead in LMP2 was cut short when a fuel pressure issue came up and forced the car to come into the pit. After a check and a refuel the Pescarolo Mazda went out, but the Ibanez Courage had closed the gap to five seconds.

Next up in trouble was Matteo Cressoni. Shortly after taking over the Audi R10 TDI the Italian spun. Fortunately he was able to get back on track after a while, but had lost several places. Dirk Müller was given a warning for his driving behavior, but escaped a penalty, leaving the battle for the GT2 lead open.

Towards the halfway point #007 was still in the lead overall, OAK Racing was still leading LMP2 while the #69 JLOC Lambo had regained the lead from the DBR9,hhh with Carlo van Dam in the Larbre Saleen closing in rapidly. The gap was still some 30 seconds, but the Dutchman gained over two seconds per lap on his rivals. The Felbermayr-Porsche was leading in GT2.

As the race continued the battles in LMP1, GT1 and GT2 kept going, with most cars within seconds of each other. Tommy Milner in the BMW was on all over Wolf Henzler and with just over an hour to go Milner made his move on the Porsche driver and took the lead in GT2.

At the front the Pescarolo, Oreca and Lola-Aston were within a second and a half of each other. The big fight meant the fourth place car, the Kolles Audi #14 was able to slowly creep up on them.

After completing 81 laps Primat brought the leading Aston onto pit road, (temporarily) handing over the lead to the Oreca. Jarvis had meanwhile come within 10 seconds of the Sora Racing car. Behind the leaders Carlo van Dam kept setting fast lap times in order to bring the Saleen into the pit in the best possible place.

The second round of pit stops started at lap 85 when Lapierre moved into the pit and handing over the car to Duval. Mücke immediately reacted by posting fast lap times, before going to the pit as well.

Soon after most of the teams had made their final stop the Saleen S7R, now driven by Stephane Lemeret went off. The Belgian managed to bring it back to the pit, after being pulled from the gravel, but a broken upright that caused the car to go off meant the car was retired. Prior to the accident the Belgian driver had not gotten any indication and he was, according to himself, a passenger.

The race continued with the top cars in the LMP1 and both GT classes still rather close to each other and with 30 minutes to go Mucke led Tinseau in LMP1, OAK Racing led Ibanez in LMP, The JLOC #69 led the #61 Aston in GT1 and the BMW was still ahead of the #77 Porsche in GT2.

Tinseau started to close in even more towards the final fifteen minutes of the race, but then the ever-returning louver problems returned to sportscar racing.

The OAK Racing car had already been in the pit with a problem but it was the Lola Aston that clearly showed a part sticking out on TV and when the camera’s started to zoom in on the part it soon became clear something was coming up. Twelve minutes before the end of the race Mücke came in and the team scrambled to work on the louvers with tape, over a minute was lost and the #007 dropped to third place, handing the lead to Sora Racing.

Tinseau realized that his rivals were having problems and soon after he had taken the lead the gap was already over five seconds. Mücke however returned to the pit where a new nose was fitted on the car. Bakkerud also came in for some tape on the louvers on his #15 Audi.

Minutes later Tinseau went into his final lap and then crossed the lap to take the win for Sora Racing. Behind him the Oreca came in second, while the Kolles Audi of Bakkerud and Jarvis took third. The GT2 battle, which lasted the entire last lap was won by Milner, beating his German rival by 0.292s. OAK Racing won LMP2, with the #69 JLOC Lamborghini winning GT1.