Since our latest update regarding participating teams in the Asian Le Mans Series, even more entries have arrived.
G-Drive Racing will also be racing in Asia. Roman Rusinov is once again the backbone, bringing the Russian roubles, and the orange colour, but unlike at ELMS and Le Mans for the last couple of years, it will be with a different team.
TDS Racing has been their partner lately, but it will be Algarve Pro Racing in Asia. The team will run under the G-Drive Racing by Algarve banner. Rusinov will be joined by Leonard Hoogenboom and James French. Hoogenboom won the Michelin Le Mans Cup in 2018, and hasn’t been too busy during 2019, but it will soon change. French drove for Algarve Pro Racing in the ELMS this year, but has mostly been racing in America, including the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The team will run an Aurus 01, which is an ORECA 07 LMP2 with “Russian” branding, just like in the ELMS 2019, but the physical car is exactly the same, and will run with the well known #26 on the sidepods from the ELMS and Le Mans.
Eurasia Motorsport have confirmed their final driver in the Ligier JS P217 LMP2 car. Former Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi will join Nick Foster and Aidan Read, so that’s quite some power line-up They will run their usual number 36.
K2 UCHINO Racing is a brand new name. They will run an ORECA 07, with Japanese driver Haruki Kurosawa and Hong Kong citizen Shaun Thong. Thong has previously raced in the Asian LMS, where he participated in the GT category. Kurosawa did some European racing about 15 years ago, having a few starts in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Le Mans Series running. He has primarily been racing in Japan since then. They will run #96.
The JLOC name will return to Le Mans related racing. They enter a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo with #88 on the doors. Portuguese driver Andre Couto will be joined by the two Japanese racers Yuya Motojima and Yusaku Shibata. The team is quite a big name in Asia, but their racing has in Europe haven’t covered them in much glory due to technical issues. They most recently competed at Le Mans 2010, where they had to retire at the halfway point. The year prior to that, they had to retire after the very first lap. Let’s hope that it all goes a lot smoother this time, closer to their home.
They will be fighting against FIST Team AAI. They are turning into Asian LMS regulars, and even won Le Mans entries two seasons ago. They will run a single BMW M6 GT3 with team founder Jun San Chen plus Hongli Ye racing the car alongside BMW works driver Joel Eriksson. They are usually frontrunners in the GT category, so they expect to be up there again this year.
The Asian Le Mans Series 2019/20 starts in one and a half weeks’ time in Shanghai.
