Red River Sport see out their first fly away season out in Malaysia

The final round of the 2018/19 Asian Le Mans Series takes place this weekend from the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, with Red River Sport by TF Sport seeing out their finale in the series in also the final race of the teams outgoing Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 as a factory supported platform.

Starting the series how they started it in Shanghai at the end of November last year, Red River Sport will be racing with just two drivers again in Malaysia. For that opening round, Bronze ranked driver Ivor Dunbar was forced to miss what became a very surprising yet thoroughly deserved P3 finish for the remaining drivers of Bonamy Grimes and Johnny Mowlem due to unforeseen matters back home. This time it will be Grimes who misses the final round also due to prior commitments back home.


Never being a team even attempting to confirm that they were Championship contenders in their GT Class, it has all been about developing the learning curve for the two gentleman drivers as they aspire to progress from national club racing through to competing at Le Mans 24Hr in the GTE class.

Shanghai, they read their hearts out to only narrowly miss out on a higher step to the podium by virtue of competing against teams with full factory GTE drivers within them. Next time out in Fuji was the first time that they had operated as a trio before technical issues aboard their TF Sport prepared car lead to a high velocity exit for Mowlem at the last round in Buriam, Thailand thanks to power steering issues and then catastrophic brake failure as the car entered into the heaviest braking section of the circuit. Only via the skill and experience of Mowlem was the car spared significant damage through contact with the barriers.


Mathematically the Championship is already beyond their means but a mid class finishing position in Malaysia could see them splitting their Tianshi Racing Team opponents should either of them face difficulties during the race.


Either way, we can assume that the Asian Le Mans Series has been a thoroughly worthwhile project for mentor/student racing squad which is Red River Sport which will be continued with back in the UK and Europe over the forthcoming 2019 season. Whilst we do not envisage seeing these guys in any other Aston Martin overt the summer months we cannot discount that they will be back for more of the same over the winter in Asia.

Photo credits - Andrew Lofthouse