Asian Le Mans Series resumes this weekend

The Thai circuit in Buriram will host the third round of the Asian Le Mans Series 2018/19 this weekend.

19 cars are on the entry list, in a weekend with a slightly different schedule than usual.

It’s Children’s day in Thailand this Saturday, so it’s a national holiday. That makes Chang International Circuit, the official name of the circuit, do some extra free activities for the families with kids. One of the things are all children under the age of 15 has free admission to the grand stand, as long as they come along with an adult.

After starting the season with eight LMP2 car, we unfortunately have dropped to six this weekend. We lost Jackie Chan DC Racing after the opening race, and they won’t be in Thailand either. Spirit of Race #8 is skipping the race due to family reasons. But that means, if the United Autosports #22 will see the chequered flag, they pretty much can’t be caught by the #8 in the fight for the title any more. #8 started out winning the opening race in China, but had a bad race in Japan, where they only finished 6th, resulting in them dropping behind the current leaders in the standings United Autosports #22.

The LMP2 Am Trophy has all three teams entered again. Algarve Pro Racing #25 with Anders Fjordbach, Chris McMurry and Mark Patterson really have their back against the wall, if they want to fight for the title win. They have finished third at both the opening rounds, and if they don’t win the race in Thailand, both ARC Bratislava #4 and United Autosports #23 would have to retire at the season finale in February, for them to be able to take the championship win.

An LMP3 team in the same situation is Ecurie Ecosse/Nielsen #7 in the LMP3 category. They HAVE to win their class, if they wanna keep dreaming about the title in the class. Christian Stubbe Olsen and teammate Nick Adcock sits 5th in the standings, and has 7 other cars to battle with. Halfway through the season we have Inter Europol Competition #13 leading the category, while United Autosports #3 and #2 are the nearest competitors.

Tianshi Racing Team Audi #66 and TF Sport Aston Martin #5 really have to up their game, if they don’t want to hand the Le Mans ticket to a Ferrari. Tianshi Racing Team Audi #88 is already out of the title fight, unless all the other cars in the category will retire with technical problems not only at this round, but also at the finale in Sepang. #88 has swapped Dries Vanthoor for Jean-Karl Verney for this weekend, with one young Audi driver replacing the other. Car Guy Ferrari #11 has won both races, while Spirit of Race Ferrari #51 has finished second in both. #66 and #5 ABSOLUTELY has to finish ahead of #11, to have any kind of chances for the title.

If Car Guy #11 wins this weekend, anything but a second place for Spirit of Race Ferrari #51, will hand the title to the Japanese Ferrari team.

There’s a different schedule for this race weekend, being only a two day event. The Friday will have two practice sessions and qualifying, and Saturday will host the 4 hours race.

Both qualifying and the race can be followed on YouTube. The qualifying starts Friday 10.35 CET while the race will start 5.45 CET Saturday morning, and will run for 4 hours + one lap.