24h Le Mans
This past weekend, the Asian Le Mans Series competitors hit the track again for the 4 Hours of Buriram in Thailand, the third and next-to-last round of the 2016/2017 season of the Asian championship.
After winning at the 4 Hours of Zhuhai, the kickoff of the 2016/2017 Asian Le Mans Series season, Jackie Chan DC Racing's #35 Oreca 03R-Nissan once again allowed Gustavo Menezes, winner in LM P2 at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans with Alpine, and Ho-Pin Tung, joined since Fuji by Thomas Laurent, to clinch a decisive win despite a penalty for overtaking during a yellow.
The Chinese team finished ahead of the two Ligier JS P2s entered by Portuguese outfit Algarve Pro Racing which debuted at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year (12th in LM P2), whereas the winners of the preceding round at Fuji, Race Performance, finished fourth as a result of mechanical troubles.
Jackie Chan DC Racing was not as successful in the LM P3 class in the face of the one-two by the Ginettas of ARC Bratislava, the British marque scoring its first win of the season thanks to Miro Konopka, Darren Burke and Mike Simpson in the #4 car, and Neale Muston and Konstantins Calko in the #7 sister car.
It was not just a one-two but a one-two-three for Ferrari in GT with two different teams. Though Stéphane Lemeret, Michele Rugolo and Matthieu Vaxivière crossed the finish line first in DH Racing's #5 Ferrari 488 GT3, the trio ended up claiming the third step on the podium after incurring a 24-second penalty for insufficient speed on the track, leaving the win to the #3 sister car driven by Rino Mastronardi, Alex Riberas and Olivier Beretta, class win record-holder at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Team BBT's #37 Ferrari 488 slipped between DH Racing's two cars, rounding out Ferrari's podium domination.
The Asian Le Mans Series competitors will find themselves once again in Sepang, Malaysia from January 20th through the 22nd.
