Asian Le Mans Series

Asian LM Series – Aston wins, Pescarolo champion

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat

Sora Racing clinched the first ever Asian Le Mans Series title at the Okayama International Circuit this weekend. Having won the first race on Saturday the team took second place on Sunday. The results from the two races combined were enough to secure the championship. In the second race the Aston Martin Racing team took the win, taking some revenge on yesterday’s result.

At the start the Drayson Racing Lola Judd pulled away from the 20 other cars on the grid. Both the Scuderia Forme Porsche and Tokaï Courage did not take the start, although the orange Porsche would later join the race.

Stefan Mücke quickly made it clear that Aston Martin Racing had come to Japan to win and started closing the gap to the Drayson Racing Lola. Fourteen laps into the race the green Lola had to give in and the Gulf-liveried car was in the lead.

The first major retirement of the race was the Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, which came to a halt on the track with mechanical problems, leaving Wolf Henzler with empty hands at the scene. The Robertson Racing Ford GT took the class lead in GT2. In GT1 Berville was unable to keep in the lead, as the Aston Martin DBR9 and a JLOC Lamborghini went by.

After the first round of pit stops had just been completed Loïc Duval, who took over from Nicolas Lapierre, returned to the pit with an unhealthy sounding engine and reduced speed. The Oreca crew eventually pulled a piece of rubber from the car and managed to get the car out on the track. It had dropped to sixth place though.

Just over 1,5 hours remained in the race when Tsuzuki overtook Yogo on the end of the straight and put the Aston Martin DBR9 back in the lead in GT2. Loïc Duval had closed the gap to Matteo Cressoni and overtook the Italian to bring the Oreca 01 AIM back to fifth overall.

With half the race remaining Primat led Nakano by 34 seconds, Nicolet let Toullemond by 14 laps (the #28 in the box), Tsuzuki led Yogo by 6.7 seconds and Milner led Simonsen by 14.5 seconds.

Hiranaka’s #85 JimGainer Ferrari did not make it to the finish when the Japanese driver had to park it on the side of the road at turn 8.

One hour and fifteen minutes were left on the clock when the timing screen reported drops of rain in sector 1. Fortunately the rain did not set on and as teams came in for their pit stops the slicks stayed on.

Scuderia Forme spun at turn 1 with just over an hour left in the race, but the old lady of the field rejoined soon. Two minutes later the #28 Courage returned to the pit again and was pushed back into the garage for the second time this race.

Yesterday’s GT2 winner BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team was the next team to hit trouble. The BMW came into the pit, was serviced and then pushed back into the box! A starter motor problem caused the delay and by the time the BMW was back on track it had dropped to fifth, Müller immediately going quick again, improving the fastest lap time set by the far only laps later.

45 minutes remained when Dominik Farnbacher passed the Daishin Ferrari of Fujii, taking the lead in GT2. Marco Holzer in the #88 Porsche understood it was his chance to move into second place in GT2 and went after it at full speed. After losing five seconds in one lap to Holzer the Daishin Ferrari came into the pit for its final stop and a change of drivers.

Behind the race leaders the Drayson Lola got engaged in a nice battle with the Audi R10 TDI of Oliver Jarvis. Cocker started to hunt down his compatriot
in the Audi. He closed the gap and a last minute attempt to pass the Audi also succeeded. Fourth place was a welcome result after yesterday’s problems.

Unlike yesterday there was no louvers drama this time and that meant the #007 Lola Aston Martin was able to control the race in the final part of the race and secure the win. One minute behind the Lola Aston it was the Pescarolo of Tinseau and Nakano that took second place, while Duval managed to get back to third after his problems earlier in the race. Duval eventually finished just eight seconds behind the Pescarolo.

At 5 pm local time the ACO will celebrate the class champions of the race and also announce the automatic invites for the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours.