Asian Le Mans Series kicks off in Shanghai
Friday, November 23, 2018
A new day and a different series befell the TF Sport team today as the first official track action of the 2018-19 Asian Le Mans Series kicked off at the Shanghai International Circuit with the Red River Sport guys out to make a point in their blue and white liveried Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3.
Fielding an opening grid of twenty seven cars for the opening round in China, the four event Series will, like all ACO sanctioned series, race with a mixed group of LMP1, LMP2, GT3 and Porsche Cup cars of which the #5 Vantage will compete in a class of five similar performing Ferrari, Audi and Mercedes GT3's.
Yesterdays private test session was Johnny Mowlem's and Bonamy Grimes first full experience of their #12 chassis'd car, a car that they had previously only tested at Silverstone and Snetterton before it was shipped out to the Far East some six weeks ago. The mixed track conditions of yesterday and today has certainly given the Pro-Am pairing 'food for thought' as they prepare themselves for tomorrows final Free Practice and Qualifying before Sundays four hour race.
We understand that the the team's third driver and long term Red River Sport customer - Ivor Dunbar has been kept away from the opening event for personal reasons but despite this the team have been able to continue long their progressing development curve with their remaining two drivers to see their laps times drop despite periodically some challenging conditions with their eyes firmly on the final prize of an automatic invitation to the 2019 24Hrs of Le Mans for each overall class winner by the end of February 2019.
Live coverage of Sundays race can be viewed from the Series Facebook account
10:20 – 11:50 Free Practice 2
15:50 – 16:05 LMP2 & LMP3 qualifying
16:15 – 16:30 GT qualifying
Sunday: 13:00 – 17:00 Agile 4 Hours of Shanghai
Live broadcast schedule:
Saturday: 15:35 – 16:45
Sunday: 09:00 – 14:15
All local times - GMT +8hrs
Photo credits - Andrew Lofthouse / TF Sport
