Five AMR crews gearing up for Asian Le Mans Series Yas Marina finale

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

 

A mere 65 miles between circuits and three days later, the Asian Le Mans Series and its thirty six car entry has already set up and had its first test sessions at the Yas Marina Circuit today as the series and crew look forward to the final two back to back rounds of the 2021 season there in Abu Dhabi.

Having only started last weekend at the Dubai Autodrome for the first two rounds of the shortened series, five Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3’s were of course included within that grid number as teams like Garage 59, TF Sport, Oman Racing and D’Station Racing also saw the benefits of shipping out to the Middle East for this series in the quest of early competitive seat time as well as that illusive automatic invitation that goes with winning in the GT class.


Some drivers listed aboard these AMR’s were running in the GT3 for the very first time whilst others had been forced (by circumstance) to sit out most of their 2020 season so these races were the first for them too in a while.


TF Sport and D’Station Racing have also recently declared their entries into either of the World Endurance Championship or European Le Mans Series for them and some of their attending drivers, so competitive track time for them (albeit not in a GTE class car) is of the essence for them.

Last weekend we saw the #88 Garage 59 car of Maxime Martin, Alex West and Valentin Hasse-Clot secure their first podium in the ACO rules world of motorsport to presently sit P4 in the GT Class ahead of this weekend’s final two four-hour races.


The Oman Racing with TF Sport #97 AMR of Ahmad Al Harthy, Jonny Adam and Tom Canning are the next highest in the table in P7 after two robust P7 finishes in Dubai that could quite easily have been much higher except for a little bad luck and with a few simple errors being avoided next time out.


The sister #89 Garage 59 car of Marvin Kirchhofer, Yuki Nemoto and Mike Benham share P12 with the #95 TF Sport car of John Hartshorne, Ollie Hancock and Charlie Eastwood after the AMR GT3 debut from all bar Eastwood and Kirchhofer whilst just below them in P13 sits the #77 D’Station Racing AMR of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tom Gamble after set up issues and unforced errors in race one in Dubai were countered by a better race performance all round in race 2.

Full details of track sessions are listed below.


What will now be interesting will be seeing the effects of Porsche's additional weight penalty after their performances of race two at Dubai where the three 911 GT3's entered will carry an extra 35kg of ballast from their Balance of Performance declared start weight before the start of proceedings before race one. Thats an extra 15kg being applied since race two.

Photo credits - ALMS / AMR / Teams
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