We are set to go for the second and final event at the Sepang Circuit in Sepang, Malaysia. Sunday’s race is round two of the 2023-2024 Asian Le Mans Series championship. Welcome to highlighted coverage of race two of the season. We join host Claire Jedrik. We ended race one in wet conditions yesterday, and believe me, the start of race two this afternoon might just offer a similar picture as the competitors are vying for the golden ticket, an invitation to the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans. This track has 15 corners. In yesterday’s event, we joined former Corvette Racing champion Oliver Gavin for a track description and an onboard lap, of course.
This is a tricky track, and the drivers are aware of that especially after the final stanza of race one yesterday. A brilliant race one yesterday as we now have a brief race preview with Claire Jedrik, Oliver Gavin, and the man who will call all the action in today’s highlighted coverage, Graham Goodwin. Lap one, turn one, we saw that massive, multi-class shemozzle which turned into a full-blown accident. Two of the major GT class contenders were eliminated from the competition. Of course, the rest of the motor race was dominated by the Sainteloc Racing Audi, the #42 car.
We had the rain and red flag right toward the end. But back to the Sainteloc Audi boys. Alban Varutti put in a remarkable drive yesterday! He was one of the chaps in that race we just couldn’t keep our eyes off. No shortage of dramas in LMP2 and LMP3. We saw wheel to wheel action amid the 11 cars in the LMP2 division. It was simply scintillating! The rain put a literal damper on the scrum between Louis Deletraz and Matthieu Vaxiviere. This is a deep, high-quality field in LMP2 and we should expect more of the same sizzling hot action this afternoon. You may need a tall glass of water to refresh yourself during this race if the action gets too spicy.
Stay tuned. Grab that glass of water and a snack or a sandwich. Trust me. You aren’t going to want to run to the fridge during this one even if there is a Full Course Yellow. Currently, we are looking at one of the GT class contenders. This is the #33 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R (992) of Antares Au from Hong Kong. He is sharing this Porsche with Tim Heinemann of Germany and Matteo Cairoli of Italy. The weather today, as we go through the contenders, is looking decidedly, markedly better than it did for the first race yesterday, the season opener. 23 cars among eight manufacturers in the GT field. We say this a lot in sports car racing, but the field is stacked, not only with manufacturer involvement but with driver talent to boot.
Fourth on the GT grid is the #9 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo being shared by American Anthony Bartone, Steve Jans from Luxembourg, and British driver Aaron Walker. Again, as great as the GetSpeed Benz looked, they gave way, ultimately, to the #42 Sainteloc Racing Audi that we have talked about at great length in this pre-race show. Germany’s Christopher Haase sharing with Gilles Magnus of Belgium, and Alban Varutti of France. Don’t forget the #7 car, another GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.
This is the automobile being shared by Omani driver Al Faisal Al Zubair, Martin Konrad from Austria, and German GT3 standout Mercedes-AMG racer, Fabian Schiller. Car #37 is looking for redemption after being in big, big trouble in race one yesterday. This is the Craft Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to be driven by Mercedes-AMG factory driver Jules Gounon of France, teamed with Anthony Liu of China, and Australian Jayden Ojeda. Poor old Anthony Liu barely got a lap yesterday after going off the road at turn two and putting the #37 car out of the race.
Fortunately, it is repaired, and as mentioned, it is now redemption for Liu and his teammates. They hope for and expect a better result today. It is a welcome sight to see this Hong Kong super team back on the Asian Le Mans Series grid, Craft Bamboo that is. EBM boss Earl Bamber is pre-race discussion. It is his team, bearing his initials. Team boss as well as one of the drivers, and we are seeing that more, especially in sports car racing. Not for every team, but there are some out there who have the team boss as a true team leader, not just the owner, but also one of the drivers.
Julien Gerbi from Bretton Racing and Michael Jensen from CD Sport, having a pre-race chat. Other drivers are chatting, taking team photographs, getting ready for another four hours of racing here at Sepang. Sure, this is only a four-hour event. Is that truly an endurance race? Well, in this case with the heat and humidity in Malaysia, you can bet your bottom dollar that it is. Mentally demanding is what endurance racing is, too. We are looking at the fifth place qualified LMP3 car.
This is the #65 Viper Niza Racing Ligier JS P320 with Malaysian driver Douglas Khoo as the starting driver sharing with countryman Dominic Ang and with Australian Josh Burdon. 15th overall and the second quickest LMP2 car
2:00.756
2. #17 Winslow/Bukhantsov/Frost Cool Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan 2:01.200
3. #26 Skocdopole/Gerbi/Steffan Bretton Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan 2:01.629
CD Sport and Viper Niza Racing complete the top five.
5. #65 Khoo/Ang/Burdon Viper Niza Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan
Audunn Gudmundsson put the High Class Racing Ligier on pole in LMP3 by nearly half a second over the other cars you see listed above, especially the second and third place cars from Cool Racing and Bretton Racing. Francois Perrodo greeting his fans as he prepares to climb aboard the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 for his opening stint. Bibendum as always, a presence on the gird. All 39 cars in all three classes on Michelin tires. Let’s look at the top qualifiers in LMP2. This is the top five. It is the second pole of the weekend for TF Sport and the #90 car being shared by Salih Yoluc of Turkey, American Michael Dinan, and Irishman Charlie Eastwood.
Third place starters Proton Competition in car #22, did not get the best start in the inclement weather at the beginning of the race yesterday. But we might see big things out of the trio of Giorgio Roda, Julien Andlauer, and Rene Binder yet this afternoon. Ahmad Al Harthy will take the start in the winning car from yesterday’s race one of the weekend. In the fifth position we have the #3 DKR Engineering Oreca to be shared by German drivers Alexander Mattschull and Laurents Horr alongside the Frenchman, Tom Dillman. DKR Engineering, a team out of Luxembourg.
TF Sport, from England, have won multiple titles in endurance racing over the years.
2. #30 Falb/Bennett/Rasmussen Duqueine Team Oreca 07 1:54.233
3. #22 Roda/Andlauer/Binder Proton Competition Oreca 07 1:54.331
It was a close battle in qualifying for the second spot between Proton Competition and Duqueine Team! Here’s the rest of the top five.
5. #3 Mattschull/Dillman/Horr DKR Engineering Oreca 07
The cars roll off on their formation laps. Michael Dinan as the one Silver ranked LMP2 driver, he gapped the field in qualifying. Teams are ready to go. The cars are formed up behind the safety car. It is time to go racing. Time to turn them loose here at Sepang once again! Greeh flag, and away we go! The lights flash green, and Michael Dinan gets a far better start today than he did yesterday. Giorgio Roda is already looking for a way past John Falb. Drama in the background. I thought there was a puff of smoke someplace. It was admittedly hard to see.
We now see the #37 Craft Bamboo Racing Mercedes getting farther than turn two on lap one. However, Douglas Khoo has spun the #65 car, the Viper Niza Racing Ligier LMP3 entry. What caused that problem? Did he fall or was he pushed? He was pushed. Meanwhile, John Falb is all over Michael Dinan like a cheap suit as the race gets underway. Will he pressure his fellow American driver into a mistake? In fifth place too, is American George Kurtz in the #4 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca he is sharing with Colin Braun and Malthe Jakobsen.
Ahmad Al Harthy in the car that won the race yesterday, he is closing rapidly on George Kurtz looking to take away the fifth spot. TF Sport lead the motor race as we have just barely begun. In the GT class, the #21 Ferrari is passed by the #19 Lamborghini, but Luxembourg driver Gabriel Rindone overcooks it and spins off. Rindone sharing with Italian Marco Mapelli and New Zealander Brendon Leitch. That was a half spin and Gabriel Rindone recovers and is back on his way. Also in GT, the Pure Racing Porsche is fending off the challenge of the Optimum Motorsports McLaren, but it is to no avail.
It is a drag race out of turn 15, wheel to wheel down the main straight. Pure Racing not giving up the fight. This is the lower end of the top ten in the GT class and 22nd overall. The McLaren gets the best of the Porsche. The Optimum McLaren being shared by James Cottingham, Sam De Haan, and Tom Gamble, all from England, and the Pure Racing Porsche, that is the Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm driven car. James Cottingham, a star of the British GT Championship, is going for it.
GT3 is a mixed candy dish of manufacturers and cars as always. Meanwhile, Anthony Liu aboard the #37 Craft Bamboo Mercedes is looking for a way by the #56 Team Project 1 BMW M4 GT3. This is the orange liveried BMW being shared by Indonesian driver Sean Gelael, Huilin Han from China, and Dutchman Maxime Oosten. Liu is under pressure from the identical #9 Mercedes-AMG GT3 from GetSpeed Performance. Much like yesterday it is the #42 Sainteloc Audi R8 LMS Evo II at the top of the shop, out front and pulling away.
In the meantime, let’s have a Captain Cook at LMP3. Four of the five LMP3 cars are still contenders and currently leading is the #20 High Class Racing Ligier with their starting driver and I believe that is Anders Fjordbach. Meanwhile, back up front in LMP2, Michael Dinan is being reeled in by John Falb. However, in this battle of the American standouts, it is the navy blue #90 car that has the edge over the #30 Duqueine entry, the black car with the lime green trim on the nose. Dinan has the measure on Falb. He is running a far more conservative pace to look after his Michelin tires, early doors.
The top four in LMP3 run liner stern and then in the GT class for the GT3 cars, well, well, well, it is copy and paste from yesterday thus far, with the #42 Sainteloc Racing Audi at the top of the shop in the hands of Alban Varutti. The battle for second in GT is heating up though. Maxime Oosten getting on terms with Martin Konrad in a scrap between Mercedes and BMW. Oosten takes it past Konrad and the Project 1 entry passes the Mercedes of Al Manar Racing by GetSpeed. In another copy and paste from race one yesterday, Kei Cozzolino of Japan, he is making his move aboard the #82 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 the Japanese driver shares alongside veteran Frenchman Emmanuele Collard and his countryman, Charles-Henri Samani.
Craft Bamboo and GetSpeed, the two Mercedes-AMGs are contesting fourth place, and are wheel to wheel into the turn! This is thrilling and we’ve only been racing for five minutes! Don’t peak too early, boys. There’s a long, long way to go. Anthony Liu and Craft Bamboo though, they are having a far better start to the race today than they encountered yesterday. Also in the mix is the second Team Project 1 BMW M4 GT3, the marbled gray livery on that car as opposed to the orange of the sister car. The #93 car has American driver Christian Bogle sharing with British drivers Dan Harper and Darren Leung.
Currently, the AMG Mercedes cars are running third, fourth, and fifth. Al Manar followed by Craft Bamboo followed by GetSpeed. We are onboard for a bird’s eye view of this battle, a driver’s eye view with the #27 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo with an all-British trio of drivers. Mark Radcliffe taking the opening stint and sharing alongside Rob Bell and Ollie Milroy. Radcliffe chasing the #8 Earl Bamber Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Danish driver Bastian Buus sharing with Setiawan Santoso of Indonesia and Tanart Sathienthirakul of Thailand.
The LMP2 battle is still hot and heavy especially for fifth place. George Kurtz in the #4 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca has his hands full with 99 Racing and car #99 of Ahmad Al Harthy and as I mentioned, this race has only just started. So, there’s lots of action to be expected. P.J. Hyett is having a great start to his LMP2 career and now, we switch gears to the LMP3 field and the battle for the class lead. This is for the class lead, and for 14th and 15th overall between CD Sport and Bretton Racing. This is the third-place battle. Last year’s champions fending off this year’s debutants.
Tomonobu Fujii in the #77 D’station Racing Aston Martin has his hands full with the Optimum Motorsport McLaren, the #69 car. This is a battle for tenth place in the GT ranks. Fujii is looking to pass the Pure Racing Porsche, the #91 car. Meanwhile, Kei Cozzolino of Japan is on terms with Martin Konrad, the Austrian, in a battle between Ferrari and Mercedes. Meanwhile the orange #56 Team Project 1 BMW M4 GT3 is taking it’s drive through penalty for an infringement at the start where I believe Maxime Oosten crossed over the columns on the road which is something you cannot do. You cannot pass until crossing the start/finish line, the control line.
Now it is game on at the top of the shop in LMP2. DKR Engineering car #3 passes the #99 99 Racing car. In defending his position on the road Ahmad Al Harthy runs wide. Just seven laps of racing have been completed, 24 miles. Francois Perrodo is making his way past John Falb as we look and the margin from the leader to second place in LMP2 is almost eight seconds. Falb had been off the road and gotten junk all over his tires. Ah. There’s been a clash on the road between the Leipert Motorsports Lamborghini and the GR Racing Ferrari with the #86 of Mike Wainwright going into the spin cycle, briefly.
Poor old Mike Wainwright is struggling to get back on track making a three-point turn. In this replay, we can see that John Falb ran very wide and goes off the road into the gravel trap at the bottom of the picture. He is a jolly lucky chap to keep going and keep the car out of the barriers! That was a close one! A drive through penalty is handed to the #19 Leipert Motorsports Lamborghini for causing the collision with the #86 Ferrari as now we see the #77 D’station Aston Martin catching the #93 Team Project 1 BMW M4 GT3. Worrying moments for the LMP2 Oreca’s as they are negotiating this GT3 traffic. Such is life in multi-class sports car racing.
Now it is a three-way battle in LMP2. Alexander Matschull being hounded by both P.J. Hyett and Francois Perrodo. George Kurtz, too, wants a bite of the cherry. So this is a four-way Oreca battle for the lead. The bonkers part is that these four are also weaving and dodging their way through half of the GT3 field! My goodness! You think rush hour is bad on the motorway, try doing the same thing on a narrow racetrack with little to no margin for error! Mark Radcliffe passes Darren Leung, reprising their battles throughout the 2023 SRO British GT Championship season. They race all over England in GT3 cars as well, so they know each other and can sense what each driver might do when making moves, for sure.
After a cracking stint P.J. Hyett has completed his drive time in the #55 Proton Competition Oreca and should leave the rest of the race up to co-drivers Paul-Loup Chatin and Harry Tincknell. Chatin will take the next stint. Meanwhile we revisit the GT class lead battle between Alban Varutti in the Audi and Kei Cozzolino in the Ferrari. Cozzolino gets on terms with Varutti and makes the pass on the Frenchman. To the lead goes the Japanese driver. Pit stop time now, with nearly 40 minutes on the board for the #22 Proton Competition car which pitted with nearly 12 seconds in hand over second place.
Cozzolino is making good his escape. He will soon hand the car over to co-driver, Frenchman, Charles-Henri Samani. Cool Racing in the LMP3 class with the #17, they are running far better today than they were yesterday and in the overall and LMP2 lead, a quicker pit stop for TF Sport and this puts Michael Dinan aboard the #90 car into the race lead. He is 13 seconds ahead of 99 Racing and they are charging to catch up. The battle for the back half of the top five is beginning to simmer. AF Corse vs. Proton Competition vs. DKR Engineering. CrowdStrike Racing also find themselves in the thick of it.
But there’s drama on the road for the #66 Audi from Attempto Racing and the #21 AF Corse Ferrari. This is in the GT class for the GT3 cars of course. Under braking, Andre Mukovoz, from Russia, he gets it wrong and spins the car. Then, he smashes into the #21 AF Corse Ferrari that has copped a serious whack on the left rear corner and has a damaged left rear tire in the process! It is game over for Mukovoz and co-drivers Alex Aka of Germany and Dylan Pereira of Luxembourg. The right front suspension of the Audi is broken. Big damage to the brand new Ferrari 296 GT3 for AF Corse as well.
Send it to the lane and retire the car. Game over as well, look, for Simon Mann from England and his co-drivers, Frenchman Francois Heriau, and Italian Ferrari GT3 specialist Davide Rigon. They will take no further part in today’s race and come back the next time out when we head for Dubai and the Dubai Autodrome. That is the next race from the Asian Le Mans Series you will hear about, and yes, yours truly plans to have a race report for that one very soon. So, keep in touch and we’ll keep you informed. Safety Car on the circuit, meanwhile. OK. A short intervention by the safety car and we go green here at Sepang once again having raced now for almost an hour and 20 minutes.
The battle is on in GT right away. Maxime Oosten goes to the inside of Charles-Henri Samani and says, “I’ll lead this race for a wee while, sunshine. Thank you.” Not to be outdone, Alban Varutti as well, makes a pass. So, TF Sport now leads 99 Racing by almost 9/10ths of a second with 33 laps complete, 114 miles. After closing the gaps behind the safety car, the race is now well and truly on. I mentioned 99 Racing would be right on TF Sport’s back door, and well, they are now. Nikita Mazepin, the former Formula 1 driver, from Russia, poking his nose to the inside of Salih Yoluc, the Bronze-rated Turkish driver for TF Sport. Saturday’s race winners are showing they’d love to do the double here in Malaysia.
DKR Engineering car #3 is about to lap the #24 Nielsen Racing Oreca 07 also in LMP2. Remember, the LMP2 class, for the most part, is spec, with Oreca 07’s being the preferred automobile. The Nielsen Racing entry being shared by Alex Garcia of Mexico, Austria’s Ferdinand Habsburg (a member of the Austrian royal family), and British veteran racer Ian Loggie. Back behind these two is the #4 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca, coming in a big hurry with a massive head of steam! Ahmad Al Harthy is cooling off after his stint as Gilles Duqueine, too, is keeping an eye on the timing screens to see where his car and drivers are placed.
Salih Yoluc contending with the #22 Proton Competition car, but Laurents Horr in the #3 DKR Engineering entry makes a pass to demote the #22 machine down a spot. You can see Colin Braun is doing everything possible to pass the #22. I am not sure who is in that car, currently. Giorgio Roda started it and since it is the middle stint of the race, I suspect that either Julien Andlauer or Rene Binder is now driving as these two make a pass on the #88 Triple Eight JMR Mercede-AMG GT3 Evo. That is the Australian run Mercedes being shared by Broc Feeney, Prince Jeffri Ibrahim, the Malaysian Prince, and Germany’s Luca Stolz.
Feeney of course is an Aussie and races for Triple Eight in the Australian Supercars championship Down Under aboard one of their Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Aussie Supercars. He has also become quite the driver at the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT3 in GT3 competition worldwide. It is always good to have a driver who is well versed in several different types of cars. Professional drivers used to cross disciplines all the time and that habit may be coming back into fashion again. Meanwhile, Colin Braun is looking to get on terms with the lead pair as they go three wide into the turn, maybe even four!
Oh my gosh! That’s what you call, as the late, great racing journalist and broadcaster Ken Squier might have, “an Oklahoma land rush!” Laurents Horr makes an inside move and now, poor old Salih Yoluc is flying Plummet Airways down the order, sinking like a stone. Where will he end up? It is hard to say at this moment. The #82 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 is passed by the #7 Al Manar Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. In the meantime, Colin Braun in LMP2 is racing head to head with DKR Engineering and some argy bargy, allows Braun to make his move and move up fast with his Danish co-driver Malthe Jakobsen still to come in the latter stints of the race this afternoon.
This team of course is run alongside the Portuguese Algarve Pro Racing but under the American flag just as it is in the LMP2 class of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. We saw CrowdStrike APR compete in the LMP2 class recently at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Meanwhile, AF Corse are also making inroads in LMP2 with their #83 car and Italian racer Alessio Rovera at the wheel of it. He too passes the #22 Proton Competition entry in LMP2. Francois Perrodo is happy with all of this. Then, Rene Binder comes on the scene and says, “hey, buster! Move it!” He nudges the #83 right out of the way. It’s a drag race down the main straight as we are 15 minutes shy of the halfway mark in race two here at Sepang.
99 Racing continue leading and have completed 47 laps, 162 miles. So, Proton Competition are really getting their noses into this little scrum and now we see the AF Corse car also doing everything on the outside to hang on! As the professional drivers step into the LMP2 cars for the second stint of the race, the pace is picking up rapidly. Paul-Loup Chatin is pushing hard and desperately closing in. Multiple drive through penalties handed out to several cars. A Great LMP2 battle. Two of the GT3 cars with drive through penalties issued by the stewards are the #82 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and, unfortunately, yesterday’s race winners, the #42 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo II.
In the LMP3 class it is CD Sport, car #2, the Spanish flag liveried Ligier ahead of Cool Racing by almost 40 seconds, having completed 51 laps, 176 miles. Pure Racing leads the GT class with 49 laps now on the board, 169 miles completed. Sainteloc Racing, yesterday’s winners, are now in catch up mode. Here’s your top three LMP3 cars.
2. #17 Bukhantsov/Frost/Winslow Cool Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan
3. #26 Gerbi/Skocdopole/Stefan Bretton Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan
Cool Racing closing in on CD Sport. Here are the top three in LMP2 as 99 Racing lead, still, but the gap is coming down and the #4 Crowdstrike entry is closing. Check that. These are the individual class leaders, not another top three summary.
LMP3: #2 Lavergne/Adcock/Jensen CD Sport Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT: #42 Varutti/Haase/Magnus Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo II
Overall classification shows a lead change as the #4 CrowdStrike Racing by APR #4 Oreca has taken the lead completing 63 laps, 217 miles. They lead 99 Racing by 1.3 seconds. Bretton Racing now hold the lead in LMP3 and in the GT class Leipert Motorsport and their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2 take the lead away, for now, from the Sainteloc Racing Audi. So, here is your corrected list of class leaders.
LMP3: #26 Gerbi/Skocdopole/Stefan Bretton Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT: #19 Leitch/Mapelli/Rindone Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3
EVO2
Back to green flag racing and now, Colin Braun leads Nikita Mazepin by almost 2.2 seconds. Mazepin took the lead but then had to give it up to Colin Braun. Alessio Rovera goes into the final turn deep on the brakes and now that will allow the Proton Competition #22 to make a move as we are also seeing a battle between DKR Engineering with their “Nemo” liveried car with the clownfish fin on the back of it and the #55 green and black striped Proton Competition Oreca as well. Side by side again with AF Corse retaking the advantage in a batte for third place.
#55 Paul-Loup Chatin makes his move with an hour and a half to go. Now we move to a battle of the teammates in GT3 and this, look, is a battle between the two Optimum Motorsport McLaren’s, car #69 vs. car #27. Ollie Milroy making a move on his teammate, and no, I am not sure who is in car #69. Milroy in the #27 entry he shares with Rob Bell and Mark Radcliffe. I don’t know if it is James Cottingham, Sam De Haan, or Tom Gamble aboard the #69. At the top of the shop, 72 laps have now been completed, 248 miles. Less than an hour and a half on the clock as Jonas Ried is soon to take over the #44 ARC Bratislava Oreca 07 that he has shared for these races in Malaysia with Mathias Beche and Miro Konopka. The German, the Swiss, and the Slovakian driver.
Meanwhile, a routine pit stop, and a driver change at the #4 pit. Malthe Jakobsen, the Dane, climbs aboard the CrowdStrike Racing by APR entry. Jakobsen will bring it home. This is the penultimate pit stop for car #4. Their strategy is to use scrubbed tires for the final stint, a set from qualifying that has a run cycle or two on them already. These are not fresh Michelin’s that will be cold, but they might need a lap still to get to full temperature even with the heat and humidity here in Malaysia. Tires are such fickle things.
Car #44 in the lane. They have had a long history, has this team from Slovakia, racing in the Asian Le Mans Series and that history continues this season in 2023-2024. Jonas Ried will take the car to the finish. He is ironically, the son of Christian Ried, who owns and operates the Proton Competition team. Jonas Ried’s grandfather Gerold Ried was also a sports car racing driver, in GT Porsche’s many moons ago, racing a Porsche 911 GT2 Turbo in the old FIA GT Championship and in such races as the Rolex 24. 99 Racing cycles through to the lead with Louis Deletraz finishing out the race in their car. He has now run 73 laps, 251 miles.
99 Racing holds a 7.3 second margin over the #83 AF Corse car in second spot. Car #25 from Algarve Pro Racing pits for service from down in tenth place. Not the result that Chris McMurry, Toby Sowery, and Freddie Tomlinson were hoping for. The #30 Duqueine Team car is also in the lane for service. They had to reposition the rear tail section, the rear clip of the car with the wing on it. In the meantime, in GT it is Pure Racing and the #91 car leading by 20 seconds over Sainteloc.
Let’s look again at a full GT class rundown.
2. #42 Haase/Magnus/Varutti Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo II.
4. #37 Gounon/Liu/Ojeda Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
5. #69 Cottingham/De Haan/Gamble Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo
6. #33 Au/Cairoli/Heinemann Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R (992)
7. #93 Bogle/Harper/Leung Team Project 1 BMW M4 GT3
8. #7 Al Zubair/Konrad/Schiller Al Manar Racing by GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
9. #19 Leitch/Mapelli/Rindone Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2
10. #88 Feeney/Ibrahim/Stolz Triple Eight/JMR Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
11. #77 Fujii/Hoshino/Stevenson D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3
12. #43 Evrard/Marschall/Zhou Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo II.
13. #75 Dunner/Neumann/Stromsted Team Motopark Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
14. #84 Bamber/D’Silva/Li Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R (992)
15. #56 Gelael/Han/Oosten Team Project 1 BMW M4 GT3
16. #86 Barker/Pera/Wainwright GR Racing Ferrari 296 GT3
17. #82 Collard/Cozzolino/Samani AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3
Trouble on the road for the #20 High Class Racing Ligier in LMP3! Anders Fjordbach is stranded on the side of the road! Clearly there are mechanical woes with this automobile with an hour and 18 minutes of racing left and 999 Racing still in the lead, almost 11 and a half seconds to the good over second place. Now, 99 Racing have covered 75 laps, 258 miles. Smoke billowing from the rear end of the car as the #55 car from Proton Competition is in the lane for tires and fuel with a recalcitrant right rear tire for Harry Tincknell. Safety Car has been scrambled. So, could this be a masterstroke for Proton Competition when it comes to their strategy?
Two more cars got the call to the pit lane. The DKR car held in the lane while the safety car picks up the leader but will rejoin the safety car queue. Trackside reports indicate Anders Fjordbach is fine, climbing from the car under his own steam. Now we go back to green flag racing with 55 minutes to go. Under an hour to go, but more drama in the same place on the course with a spin for the #65 Viper Niza Racing Ligier LMP3 car! Josh Burdon, the Australian, at the controls, has yet another incident, making major contact with the barriers! Full Course Yellow, again. We are under Full Course Yellow.
Another safety car scramble and now, Proton Competition is half a minute, 33 seconds, ahead of the #4 CrowdStrike entry in LMP2 and the overall. 88 laps completed, 304 miles. The #55 Proton Competition car is indeed delayed coming into the pit lane. This forced pit stop will be disaster for the #55! But the pit strategy for the #4 CrowdStrike by APR entry could very well be manna from heaven for Colin Braun, George Kurtz, and Malthe Jakobsen. #55 will drop down the order and now, we have the restart with just over 20 minutes to go. The mad dash to the finish is on, right here at Sepang! Yikes! Some brushing, pushing, shoving for CD Sport and one of the BMW’s!
Nick Adcock survives that little shemozzle and meanwhile, a battle ensues for fifth place between DKR Engineering doing the chasing and the Duqueine Team. Car #3 vs. car #30. Now we move to 16 minutes to go. The race is winding down with every tick of the clock. Fabien Lavergne in mighty form for CD Sport in the LMP3 class. Meanwhile, a battle for fourth spot in GT3 is raging as well. The GT class race isn’t over by any means yet either. Al Manar Racing Mercedes vs. Optimum Motorsport McLaren vs. Triple Eight Mercedes. That is a battle for the final step on the GT podium. Pure Racing and car #91 are the GT class leaders with their Porsche.
Klaus Bachler is fending off the challenge from Sainteloc Racing and Christopher Haase, the veteran GT3 driver who has spent pretty much his whole career in sports car racing at the wheel of an Audi R8. Fabien Lavergne leading LMP3 over James Winslow and Mihnea Stefan. CD Sport, Cool Racing, and Bretton Racing, 1, 2, 3. Fabien Lavergne has his head down and wants by Christopher Haase in the worst way. Haase is the cork in the bottle for the LMP3 leader. Ten minutes left in this motor race. Time is now of the essence. In the lead, CrowdStrike by APR have completed 102 laps, 351 miles.
Their lead gap over the #22 Proton Competition Oreca stands at 7.2 seconds. 99 Racing runs third. Louis Deletraz is pushing, having made a move on Matthieu Vaxiviere. Malthe Jakobsen has done the business here in his stint. It is the final lap of the race with the lead over Proton decreased just slightly to seven seconds even. But it will not matter as we come to the end of the motor race. Julien Andlauer and company will finish second. This is the final lap and faultless drives from George Kurtz, Colin Braun, and Malthe Jakobsen. IMSA’s Michelin Endurance Cup 2023 winners, will also win the final major sports car race of 2023.
107 laps, 369 miles. Team Technical Director and strategist David Leach made the right calls and so, Malthe Jakobsen, Colin Braun, and George Kurtz, take the victory in race two of the Asian Le Mans Series here at Sepang! CD Sport take the honors in LMP3 while in the GT class it is Pure Racing, the Lithuanian flagged team with their #91 car winning the GT class! Porsche victorious in GT3. CD Sport under the Spanish flag take LMP3 honors with Fabien Lavergne, Michael Jensen, and Nick Adcock.
Overall/LMP2: #4 Braun/Jakobsen/Kurtz CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca 07
LMP3: #27 Adcock/Jensen/Lavergne CD Sport Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT: #91 Bachler/Malykhin/Sturm Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R (992)
In full dry conditions, 99 Racing cannot answer the bell as they did in the wet in race one yesterday. CD Sport, the defending champions put 25 points on the board in defense of their title. CD Sport winning the Asian Le Mans Series last year were invited to race for the first time at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Two four-hour races done, 2/5ths of the season, 40%, before the Christmas break, done. We’ll see you soon for the February races in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. One race in Dubai and two more in Abu Dhabi to cap off the season.
Pure Racing take their first win in ACO rules racing and will be joining the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2024 as well. A wonderful race today for the second time as the winners get their prized Michelin hats. Colin Braun is extremely happy to win and so is George Kurtz. It is the team’s first win in Asia and Malthe Jakobsen is happy about his first win with a new team. They go into the races in Dubai and Abu Dhabi with momentum.
108 laps the winners’ total distance. 372 miles. Of the 39 cars that started this race, a raft of cars not classified, seven of them. 31 cars finished and some as many as eight laps behind the winner. Remember, a single event in Dubai. That is the next event on the calendar. We’ll see you very soon for the race in Dubai. For now, it is time to spray the champagne. In the points, 99 Racing lead the LMP2 teams’ championship by ten points over CrowdStrike Racing by APR. AF Corse, DKR Engineering, and Proton Competition still in contention.
The drivers’ standings have many of the three driver teams within striking distance of each other with Al Harthy, Deletraz, and Mazepin leading on 43 points, ten points ahead of Braun, Kurtz, and Jakobsen on 33 points. Alessio Rovera, Francois Perrodo, and Matthieu Vaxiviere are third in the standings after both races in Malaysia are now complete. CD Sport are the LMP3 winners over Bretton Racing and Cool Racing. We look ahead to the races in the UAE in the new year. CD Sport are utterly relieved to win the race in LMP3 today.
CD Sport lead LMP3 by three points over Cool Racing and seven markers over Bretton Racing with High Class Racing bringing up the rear. Nine drivers within ten points in the LMP3 drivers’ standings as we move ahead to the races in the UAE. Pure Racing delighted with GT victory with Sainteloc Racing and Optimum Motorsports second and third. Sainteloc disappointed with their penalty. You must be fault free to win these endurance races. Even the shorter ones like these in Asian Le Mans Series. Saineloc Racing on 44 points lead the championship over Pure Racing on 33 poitns and Al Manar Racing by GetSpeed on 24 points.
Al Manar Racing only 20 points back leaving Malaysia and headed for the Gulf in February. So, three different teams, and three different German car brands in the GT3 class as we head for the races in the desert come February. In fact, those races will be highlighted and written about very shortly, here on the blog. Trust me, you will not want to miss them. That wraps up the Sepang doubleheader. We’ll see you next time out in Dubai. For now, so long everybody, and take care.
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