The Asian Le Mans Series (AsLMS)[1] is an Asian sports car racing endurance series created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and based in Asia. It is the successor to the defunct Japan Le Mans Challenge which folded in 2007 after its second season. The ACO aims to attract teams and drivers from Asian countries.

Asian Le Mans Series
CategoryEndurance racing
RegionAsia & Middle East
Inaugural season2009
Prototype ClassesLMP2, LMP3
GT ClassesGT
Tyre suppliersMichelin
Drivers' championLMP2:
United States George Kurtz
Denmark Malthe Jakobsen
United States Colin Braun
LMP3:
Saint Kitts and Nevis Alexander Bukhantsov
United Kingdom James Winslow
GT:
Saint Kitts and Nevis Alex Malykhin
Germany Joel Sturm
Austria Klaus Bachler
Teams' championLMP2: Portugal CrowdStrike by APR
LMP3: Switzerland COOL Racing
GT: Lithuania Pure Rxcing
Official websiteasianlemansseries.com
Current season

A teasing race was to be held in Shanghai, China on November 1–2, 2008 but was later cancelled. The inaugural season's race, the 2009 1000 km of Okayama, was held on 30 October and 1 November 2009 at Okayama, Japan with one 500 km race per day. It was the only event of the inaugural season. A second Asian Le Mans Series event, scheduled for the Shanghai International Circuit, China, on 7 and 8 November was cancelled by the ACO due to economic circumstances.[2] The winning teams in each of the four categories (LMP1, LMP2, GT1 and GT2) earned automatic invitations to the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans. The series was relaunched for the 2013 season with an announcement at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Former earlier logo of the Asian Le Mans Series used from 2009 until the end of the 2015/16 series season

History edit

Following the end of the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC) in 1992 there was no major endurance series involving sports prototypes in Asia, although there was a grand tourer championship in the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the predecessor to today's Super GT series.

Plans for a new endurance championship were initially conceived by Don Panoz and backed by the ACO in 2000 with plans for an Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series, modeled after his American Le Mans Series and planned European Le Mans Series for 2001. Two previews of this event were held. The 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000km at the Fuji Speedway in Japan combined Le Mans cars with JGTC machines for automatic entries to the 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans. This idea was followed by the American Le Mans Series with the 2000 Race of a Thousand Years race at the Adelaide Street Circuit in Australia. These two events served as a precursor to the planned APLMS series, and at the time of the creation of ELMS, Don Panoz announced his intention to hold an exhibition APLMS race at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia in late 2001.

However, the European Le Mans Series suffered from a lack of entrants during its debut season and was eventually canceled. Don Panoz decided that the APLMS would likely have even less interest. Thus the APLMS exhibition race and all plans for an Asian series were scrapped.

The ACO attempted to develop their own championship modeled on their own Le Mans Endurance Series in 2006 with the development of the Japan Le Mans Challenge, overseen by the Sports Car Endurance Race Operation (SERO). It too lacked competitors and was canceled after its second season.

In 2009, a reborn Asian Le Mans Series held an inaugural event in Okayama, Japan with two 500 km races. A 1000 km race in Zhuhai, China, was held as part of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in 2010, and it was also part of the Asian Le Mans Series.

At the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans the ACO announced the revival of the Asian Le Mans Series for the 2013 series.[3] The format will be run very similarly to the European Le Mans Series, with the ACO expecting around 16-18 cars for the first relaunched season. However, only 8 cars showed up for the first race of the season, making it the smallest ever grid in ACO sanctioned racing. This record was broken a year later when only six cars started the first race of the 2014 season at Inje.

The ACO further announced that cars running under the GT300 regulations in the Japanese Super GT series would be eligible to enter in the Asian Le Mans Series' GTC class, with organisers from both series working together to create calendars that would allow GT300 teams to compete in both championships.[4]

Following the end of the 2014 season, the ACO took over as the organizer for the series from the S2M Group. A primary issue that supported the takeover included low car counts for the season which prompted the cancellation of a scheduled round in Thailand and limited the series to grow while only in its second year. Plans for 2015 include a three-race calendar to begin later in the year around September then expand to five rounds in 2016 with the first race in the spring. One round will be held on the same weekend as the FIA World Endurance Championship, similar to the double-headers it shares with the European Le Mans Series and the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Class structure will remain unchanged.

In October 2016, the Asian Le Mans Series announced a partnership with the GT Asia Series. It includes a new Michelin Asia GT Challenge, which is a combined classification for GT3 teams, where the winner will get an invitation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In January 2020, the Asian Le Mans Series hosted its first race outside the continent of Asia at Tailem Bend Motorsport Park, Australia known as the 4 Hours of The Bend.

In the 2021 season from February 13th-20th, the series marked its first venture to the Middle East racing in the United Arab Emirates for two 4 Hours of Dubai races at the Dubai Autodrome followed by two 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi races at the Yas Marina Circuit. Since then during that year's season until the end of the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series season, the championship has been run entirely within the country.

Format edit

The relaunched Asian Le Mans series has very similar rules to the European Le Mans Series with a total of four classes: LMP2, LMPC, GTC, and GTC Am.

Compared to its running in 2009 the LMP1 and LMGT1 categories are dropped. The GTC class is opened to GT3 category cars in addition to Super GT series GT300 teams. All classes follow a "Pro-Am" categorization with each car requiring at least one amateur-rated driver, and each car must have at least one driver of Asian nationality. The season champions of LMP2 and GTC receive an invitation to the following year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Michelin is the sole tire supplier for the series.

In the 2013 season the SGT class was opened exclusively for all teams in GT300 class of Super GT. It used the same vehicle regulation of Super GT and counted towards the GT300 championship. This class only participated at the 2013 3 Hours of Fuji.

On 20 April 2013, changes were made to the class structure for grand touring. GTC remained open to FIA GT3 category cars while GTC Am was introduced as a trophy to gentleman drivers and teams that competed from Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, Ferrari Challenge Asia-Pacific, Audi R8 LMS Cup Asia, and Lotus Cup Asia. The class was renamed GT Am the following season.

For the 2014 season, Group CN was admitted into the series replacing the entry-less LMPC class from 2013. The grand tourer classes including LM GTE, GTC, and Super GT300 were merged into a single GT class. Driver requirements to include one driver from Asia were expanded to include any nationality from the Australasia region.

In 2015 the season format was changed to a winter one spanning two calendar years. The LMP3 class was added and the GT class was split in GT and GT Am.

In the 2016–17 season the GT Cup class replaced GT Am.

In the 2017–18 season CN was dropped and GT Am was back.

In the 2018–19 season the new LMP2 cars homologated after the ACO's 2017 regulations were eligible for the LMP2 class and the earlier LMP2 cars were eligible for the new LMP2 Am class.

The GT Cup class would be dropped in the 2019–20 season.

ACO's Generation II 2020 Regulation Built LMP3 Cars from manufacturers such as Ligier, ADESS, Ginetta & Duqueine Engineering were now eligible in the series starting in the 2021 season. The calendar would also return to an annual format instead of spanning two calendar years since back in the 2015-16 season due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In the 2023 season of the Asian Le Mans Series, a bronze pro-am rated driver would be mandatory in each class for the first time. Therefore the LMP2 Am & GT Am Classes would officially be dropped.

The 2023-24 Asian Le Mans Series season began with a double header at the Sepang International Circuit. With motorsport in the South East Asia region reigniting after the effects of traveling and freight during the COVID-19 Pandemic, now is the time to bring the Asian Le Mans Series back to its traditional home to countries across throughout Asia. The return of Sepang to the calendar saw the season expanded to five races, with the hugely popular races at Dubai Autodrome and Yas Marina Circuit also as well featured.

Races edit

Throughout the course of the category of the Asian Le Mans Series since it was inaugurated in the 2009 1000 km of Okayama race event and after it was revived in 2013, it has held races on 10 different circuit venues across 7 countries. The Series would hold its first race outside the continent of Asia with the 4 Hours of The Bend race at The Bend Motorsport Park in Australia during the 2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series season. It would also hold races in the category as well for the first time venturing in the Middle East starting in the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series season with the 4 Hours of Dubai at Dubai Autodrome and 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina Circuit.

Current races (2023–24) edit

Race Circuit Seasons
4 Hours of Sepang   Sepang International Circuit 2013–2020, 2023–24
4 Hours of Dubai   Dubai Autodrome 2021–2024
4 Hours of Abu Dhabi   Yas Marina Circuit 2021–2024

Former races edit

Race Circuit Seasons
1000 km of Okayama   Okayama International Circuit 2009
3 Hours of Inje   Inje Speedium 2013–2014
4 Hours of Fuji   Fuji Speedway 2013–2019
4 Hours of Zhuhai   Zhuhai International Circuit 2013, 2016–2017
4 Hours of Shanghai   Shanghai International Circuit 2014, 2018–2019
4 Hours of Buriram   Chang International Circuit 2015–2020
4 Hours of The Bend   The Bend Motorsport Park 2020

Champions edit

Drivers edit

Season Category
2009 LMP1 LMP2 GT1 GT2
  Christophe Tinseau
  Shinji Nakano
  Jacques Nicolet
  Matthieu Lahaye
  Richard Hein
  Atsushi Yogo
  Hiroyuki Iiri
  Dominik Farnbacher
  Allan Simonsen
2013 LMP2 GTE GTC
  David Cheng   Naoki Yokomizo
  Akira Iida
  Shogo Mitsuyama
  Andrea Bertolini
  Michele Rugolo
  Steve Wyatt
2014 LMP2 CN GT
  David Cheng
  Ho-Pin Tung
  Kevin Tse   Jun San Chen
  Tatsuya Tanigawa
2015–16 LMP2 LMP3 CN GT GT Am
  Nicolas Leutwiler   David Cheng
  Ho-Pin Tung
  Denis Lian
  Giorgio Maggi
  Weng Sun Mok
  Rob Bell
  Keita Sawa
  Paul Ip
2016–17 LMP2 LMP3 CN GT GT Cup
  Andrea Roda   Nigel Moore
  Phil Hanson
  Kenji Abe
  Akihiro Asai
  Qin Tianqi
  Tira Sosothikul
  Medhapan Sundaradeja
  Michele Rugolo   Takuma Aoki
  Shinyo Sano
2017–18 LMP2 LMP3 GT GT Am GT Cup
  Harrison Newey
  Stéphane Richelmi
  Thomas Laurent
  Guy Cosmo
  Patrick Byrne
  Jesse Krohn
  Jun-San Chen
  Max Wiser
  Weian Chen
  Will Bamber
  Graeme Dowsett
2018–19 LMP2 LMP2 Am LMP3 GT GT Am GT Cup
  Paul di Resta
  Phil Hanson
  Kang Ling
  Darren Burke
  Miro Konopka
  Jakub Śmiechowski
  Martin Hippe
  James Calado
  Kei Cozzolino
  Takeshi Kimura
  Max Wiser   Philippe Descombes
  Benny Simonsen
2019–20 LMP2 LMP2 Am LMP3 GT GT Am
  James French
  Roman Rusinov
  Léonard Hoogenboom
  Cody Ware   Colin Noble
  Tony Wells
  Marcos Gomes   Li Lin
  Zhiwei Lu
2021 LMP2 LMP2 Am LMP3 GT GT Am
  René Binder
  Ferdinand von Habsburg
  Yifei Ye
  Andreas Laskaratos
  Dwight Merriman
  Kyle Tilley
  Wayne Boyd
  Manuel Maldonado
  Rory Penttinen
  Ralf Bohn
  Alfred Renauer
  Robert Renauer
  Christian Hook
  Patrick Kujala
  Manuel Lauck
2022 LMP2 LMP2 Am LMP3 GT GT Am
  Matt Bell
  Ben Hanley
  Rodrigo Sales
  David Droux
  Sébastien Page
  Eric Trouillet
  Christophe Cresp
  Antoine Doquin
  Steven Palette
  Ben Barnicoat
  Brendan Iribe
  Ollie Millroy
  Mikaël Grenier
  Ian Loggie
  Valentin Pierburg
2023 LMP2 LMP3 GT
  Charlie Eastwood
  Ayhancan Güven
  Salih Yoluç
  François Heriau
  Xavier Lloveras
  Fabrice Rossello
  Nicky Catsburg
  Chandler Hull
  Thomas Merrill
2023-2024 LMP2 LMP3 GT
  George Kurtz
  Malthe Jakobsen
  Colin Braun
  Alexander Bukhantsov
  James Winslow
  Alex Malykhin
  Joel Sturm
  Klaus Bachler

Teams edit

Season Category
2009 LMP1 LMP2 GT1 GT2
  Sora Racing   OAK Racing/Team Mazda France   JLOC   Hankook Team Farnbacher
2013 LMP2 GTE GTC
  OAK Racing   Team Taisan Ken Endless   AF Corse
2014 LMP2 CN GT
  OAK Racing   Craft-Bamboo Racing   AAI-Rstrada
2015–16 LMP2 LMP3 CN GT GT Am
  Race Performance   DC Racing   Avelon Formula   Clearwater Racing   KCMG
2016–17 LMP2 LMP3 CN GT GT Cup
  Algarve Pro Racing   Tockwith Motorsports   PS Racing   DH Racing   TKS
2017–18 LMP2 LMP3 GT GT Am GT Cup
  Jackie Chan DC Racing X Jota   Jackie Chan DC Racing X Jota   Fist Team AAI   Tianshi Racing Team   Team NZ
2018–19 LMP2 LMP2 Am LMP3 GT GT Am GT Cup
  United Autosports   ARC Bratislava   Inter Europol Competition   Car Guy Racing   Tianshi Racing Team   Modena Motorsports
2019–20 LMP2 LMP2 Am LMP3 GT GT Am
  G-Drive Racing with Algarve   Rick Ware Racing   Nielsen Racing   HubAuto Corsa   Astro Veloce Motorsport
2021 LMP2 LMP2 Am LMP3 GT GT Am
  G-Drive Racing   Era Motorsport   United Autosports   Precote Herberth Motorsport   Rinaldi Racing
2022 LMP2 LMP2 Am LMP3 GT GT Am
  Nielsen Racing   Graff Racing   CD Sport   Inception Racing with Optimum Motorsport   SPS Automotive
2023 LMP2 LMP3 GT
  DKR Engineering   Graff Racing   Walkenhorst Motorsport
2023-2024 LMP2 LMP3 GT
  CrowdStrike by APR   COOL Racing   Pure Rxcing

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Rookies Guide to Sportscars: The Asian Le Mans Series". TheInstallationLap. 2023-02-08. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  2. ^ Planetlemans.com Series Update (2009-08-04). "Asian Le Mans Series: The latest news". Planetlemans.com. Archived from the original on 2009-08-09. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
  3. ^ John Dagys Update (2012-06-14). "LE MANS: Asian Le Mans Series Relaunched". Speedtv.com. Archived from the original on 2012-06-18. Retrieved 2012-06-14.
  4. ^ "Super GTs will be eligible for the inaugural Asian Le Mans Series in 2013". Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. 20 August 2012. Archived from the original on 23 August 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2012.

External links edit