Four GT subs in Asian LMS

There will be four substitutes present in the six GT cars at the Asian Le Mans Series 2020/21 season finale this weekend in Buriram.

The four replacements are due to the date clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship, which is run at Circuit Of The Americas. The FIA WEC race should have been three weeks ago in Brazil, but that race was cancelled, and replaced by the COTA race in Texas, USA.

So Alessandro Pier Guidi in Spirit Of Race Ferrari #51 will be replaced by the new Ferrari works driver and Le Mans winner, Daniel Serra. He will share the car with Francesco Piovanetti and Ozz Negri Jr, who currently sit fourth in the GT category.

Ross Gunn has raced in the D’Station Racing Aston Martin #77 during the first three rounds of the season, but will be replaced by Tom Gamble. Gamble is one of the big British talents, who got signed by United Autosports a few weeks ago, but their European Le Mans Series programme in 2020. D’Station Racing Aston Martin #77 are currently in fifth position in the standings, thanks to the points collected by Gunn, Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fuji.

Spirit Of Race Ferrari #51 & D’Station Racing Aston Martin #77
Photo: Asian Le Mans Series

Last year’s winner, Car Guy Ferrari #7 has replaced one of their drivers. Come Ledogar and Takeshi Kimura will be joined by Mikkel Jensen, replacing Kei Cozzolino. Jensen was part of the LMP3 title winning crew in the ELMS 2019, and was BMW works driver for the last few years. He is no longer part of that programme, so he can pick and choose whatever offers appear. Car Guy Ferrari #7 is second in the GT standings.

HubAuto Corsa Ferrari #27 doesn’t have Davide Rigon in the car this weekend due to the clash, so have pulled in Tim Slade as his replacement. He will share the car with Marcos Gomes and Liam Talbot.

This is a quite unique situation in the GT category, with all 6 participating cars in Thailand are able to win the title. The cars are separated by just 19 points, so T2 Motorsports Ferrari #75 and D’Station Aston Martin #77 need a bit of luck, to win the title. But Spirit Of Race Ferrari #51, HubAuto Corsa Ferrari #27, Car Guy Ferrari #7 and the leading JLOC Lamborghini #88 are just 7 points apart. So it’s basically The Winner Takes It All – if any of these four are the winners.

Opposite to the previous years, it’s only the winner in the GT category who gets a Le Mans auto invite. But one this is to win the invite, another thing is to take up the invite. Car Guy took the trip to France last year, so they are for sure ready to go again, if they win the spot. The final date to apply for a Le Mans entry – auto invite or not- was 13 February, with an option to cancel it again before 25 February, i.e. Tuesday, in case they don’t win the invite, and don’t want to go.

Everything will be decided this Sunday, with the race in Thailand. It wiil be live streamed on YouTube from 5.15 CET, Sunday morning.

Related Posts