2013 Asian Le Mans Series Explained

The 2013 Asian Le Mans Series was the second season of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's Asian Le Mans Series endurance auto racing championship. The series was initially launched in 2009 at the 1000 km of Okayama, but did not resume the following year. The project was reinitialized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) in 2012, with the Chinese S2M Group serving as the series promoter and TS Motorsport serving as organizer. It is the fourth 24 Hours of Le Mans-based series created by the ACO, following the American Le Mans Series, European Le Mans Series, and FIA World Endurance Championship. The four event season began in Inje, South Korea on 4 August and ended in Selangor, Malaysia on 8 December 2013.

Regulations

The Asian Le Mans Series follows much of the format utilized by the American and European Le Mans Series. Four categories of cars are eligible for the series: Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC), GT Challenge (GTC), and GT Challenge Amateur (GTC Am). The GTC category is open to FIA GT3 category cars, cars from one-make series, and unique to the Asian series, JAF-GT, a road-derived variant car taking part in the GT300 category of the Japanese Super GT series. All four categories require at least one amateur driver and one professional driver in each car, although teams are allowed a maximum of three drivers per car. In order to boost Asian participation in the series, all cars must also have at least one driver of Asian nationality.^[1] An LMGTE category, identical to that used at Le Mans, was considered but later dropped for the 2013 season. For the 3 Hours of Fuji, an SGT class is added into the race, which is an optional point-scoring round of the GT300 class of the 2013 Super GT season. Entrants must keep their original driver lineup in order to be eligible for the race.^[2]

The team champions in the LMP2 will each automatic invitations in their category to the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans, while the top two GTC class teams will earn invitations in the LMGTE Amateur category at Le Mans.

Calendar

An initial six race 2013 calendar was revealed during the 2012 6 Hours of Shanghai, although several circuits had previously announced contracts with the series. The first half of the season was exclusively in China, with the Zhuhai International Circuit, Shanghai International Circuit, and Ordos International Circuit playing host. Following an agreement between the teams and organisers to delay and compress the 2013 season, the Shanghai and Ordos rounds were cancelled,^[3] and the season now begins in South Korea at the new Inje Speedium which was completed early in 2013.^[4] Fuji Speedway in Japan hosts the second round a month before the 6 Hours of Fuji World Endurance Championship event. Zhuhai, the sole remaining Chinese round, is moved back to October for the third race of the year. The Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia will serve as the finale for the season, replacing the initially scheduled Sentul International Circuit of Indonesia.^[5]

All events on the calendar will have practice sessions held on Friday, qualifying on Saturday, and the three-hour race on Sunday. Unlike the American and European Le Mans Series, the Asian Le Mans Series will not share any race weekends with the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Date
1	3 Hours of Inje	Inje Speedium, Inje, South Korea	4 August
2	3 Hours of Fuji	Fuji Speedway, Oyama, Japan	22 September
3	3 Hours of Zhuhai	Zhuhai International Circuit, Zhuhai, China	13 October
4	3 Hours of Sepang	Sepang International Circuit, Selangor, Malaysia	8 December

Teams and Drivers

LMP2

All entries use Michelin tyres.

Team	Car	Engine		Drivers	Rounds
KCMG^[6]	Morgan LMP2	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	18	James Winslow	1–2, 4
				Akash Nandy	1
				Gary Thompson	1
				Richard Bradley	2
				Hiroshi Koizumi	2
				Tsugio Matsuda	4
	Oreca 03			Jordan Oon	3
				Gary Thompson	3
				James Winslow	3
OAK Racing	Morgan LMP2	Judd HK 3.6 L V8	24	David Cheng	All
				Jeffrey Lee	1–2
				Ho-Pin Tung	1, 3–4
				Congfu Cheng	2
				Shaun Thong	3
Craft Racing	Oreca 03	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	27	Richard Bradley	4
				Pu Jun Jin	4
				Dan Polley	4

LMGTE

All entries use Michelin tyres.

Team	Car	Engine		Drivers	Rounds
AAI-Rstrada	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	35	Han-Chen Chen	4
				Ryohei Sakaguchi	4
				Marco Seefried	4
Team Taisan Ken Endless	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	Ferrari F142 4.5 L V8	70	Naoki Yokomizo	1, 3–4
				Kamui Kobayashi	1
				Akira Iida	2–4
				Shogo Mitsuyama	2–4
				Shinji Nakano	2

GTC

All entries use Michelin tyres.

Team	Car	Engine		Drivers	Rounds
Craft Racing	Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3	Aston Martin 6.0 L V12	007	Frank Yu	1–2
				Stefan Mücke	1, 4
				Keita Sawa^[7]	1, 4
				Richard Lyons	2
	Ford GT GT3	Ford 5.0 L V8		Darryl O'Young	3
				Keita Sawa	3
				Frank Yu	3
	Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3	Aston Martin 6.0 L V12	009	Tomonobu Fujii	4
				Darryl O'Young	4
				Frank Yu	4
Pacific Direction Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	9	Akira Mizutani	2
				Yuya Sakamoto	2
				You Yokomaku	2
Team Taisan Ken Endless	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6	26	Kyosuke Mineo	1
				Yukinori Taniguchi	1
				Akihiro Asai	2
				Naoya Gamou	2
Clearwater Racing	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari F142 4.5 L V8	33	Weng Sun Mok	4
Clearwater Racing	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari F142 4.5 L V8	33	Toni Vilander	4
BBT Racing^[8]	Lamborghini Gallardo GT3	Lamborghini 5.2L V10	37	Anthony Liu	All
				Davide Rizzo	All
				Max Wiser	1–3
				Fabio Babini	4
AF Corse	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari F142 4.5 L V8	77	Andrea Bertolini	All
				Michele Rugolo	All
				Steve Wyatt	All
AAI-Rstrada	McLaren MP4-12C GT3	McLaren 3.8L V8	91	Jun-San Chen	1–3
				Akira Iida	1
				Tatsuya Tanigawa	2–3
				Marco Seefried	2
				Takeshi Tsuchiya	3
			92	Han-Chen Chen	1–3
				Akihiro Asai	1
				Somchai Saksirivatekul	1
				Yasushi Kikuchi	2–3
				Marco Seefried	3
	BMW Z4 GT3	BMW 4.4 L V8	91	Jun-San Chen	4
				Tatsuya Tanigawa	4
				Takeshi Tsuchiya	4

GTC Am

All entries use Michelin tyres.

Team	Car	Engine		Drivers	Rounds
Gama Racing	Lamborghini Gallardo	Lamborghini 5.2L V10	36	Michael Huang	4
				Han Lin	4
				Hanss Lin	4
Team Primemantle Aylezo	Lamborghini Gallardo	Lamborghini 5.2L V10	69	Zen Low	4
				Dilantha Malagamuwa	4
				Giorgio Sanna	4
Mike Racing	Lamborghini Gallardo	Lamborghini 5.2L V10	96	Michael Chua Khian Keng	4
				Rick Cheang Wan Chin	4
				Joseph Chua Thian Song	4

SGT

Team	Make	Car		Drivers	Tyre
Team Taisan Ken Endless	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R	0	Kyosuke Mineo	align=center rowspan=2	2
Team Taisan Ken Endless	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R	0	Naoki Yokomizo	2
Cars Tokai Dream28	McLaren	McLaren MP4-12C GT3	2	Hiroki Katoh	align=center rowspan=2	2
Cars Tokai Dream28	McLaren	McLaren MP4-12C GT3	2	Kazuho Takahashi	2
Team Mach	Nissan	Nissan GT-R GT3	5	Tetsuji Tamanaka	align=center rowspan=2	2
Team Mach	Nissan	Nissan GT-R GT3	5	Naoya Yamano	2
Gainer	Mercedes-Benz	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	11	Katsuyuki Hiranaka	align=center rowspan=2	2
Gainer	Mercedes-Benz	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	11	Björn Wirdheim	2
Team Mugen	Honda	Honda CR-Z	16	Hideki Mutoh	align=center rowspan=2	2
Team Mugen	Honda	Honda CR-Z	16	Yuhki Nakayama	2
apr	Nissan	Nissan GT-R GT3	30	Yuki Iwasaki	align=center rowspan=3	2
				Kenji Kobayashi	2
				Igor Sushko	2
OKINAWA-IMP RACING with SHIFT	Mercedes-Benz	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	52	Hironori Takeuchi	align=center rowspan=3	2
				Takeshi Tsuchiya	2
				Motoyoshi Yoshida	2
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda	Honda CR-Z	55	Takashi Kobayashi	align=center rowspan=3	2
				Tomoki Nojiri	2
				Shinichi Takagi	2
R&D Sport	Subaru	Subaru BRZ	61	Kota Sasaki	align=center rowspan=2	2
R&D Sport	Subaru	Subaru BRZ	61	Tetsuya Yamano	2
Leon Racing	Mercedes-Benz	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	62	Haruki Kurosawa	align=center rowspan=2	2
Leon Racing	Mercedes-Benz	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	62	Tsubasa Kurosawa	2

Season results

Rnd.	Circuit	LMP2 Winning Team	LMGTE Winning Team	GTC Winning Team	GTC Am Winning Team	SGT Winning Team	Results
Rnd.	Circuit	LMP2 Winning Drivers	LMGTE Winning Drivers	GTC Winning Drivers	GTC Am Winning Drivers	SGT Winning Drivers	Results
1	Inje	No. 18 KCMG	No. 70 Team Taisan Ken Endless	No. 77 AF Corse	No entries	Did not participate	Report
1	Inje	Akash Nandy Gary Thompson James Winslow	Kamui Kobayashi Naoki Yokomizo	Andrea Bertolini Michele Rugolo Steve Wyatt			Report
2	Fuji	No. 18 KCMG	No. 70 Team Taisan Ken Endless	No. 007 Craft Racing	No. 16 Team Mugen	Report
2	Fuji	Richard Bradley Hiroshi Koizumi James Winslow	Akira Iida Shogo Mitsuyama Shinji Nakano	Richard Lyons Frank Yu	Hideki Mutoh Yuhki Nakayama	Report
3	Zhuhai	No. 24 OAK Racing	No. 70 Team Taisan Ken Endless	No. 77 AF Corse	Did not participate	Report
3	Zhuhai	David Cheng Shaun Thong Ho-Pin Tung	Akira Iida Shogo Mitsuyama Naoki Yokomizo	Andrea Bertolini Michele Rugolo Steve Wyatt		Report
4	Sepang		No. 70 Team Taisan Ken Endless	No. 33 Clearwater Racing	No. 69 Team Primemantle Aylezo	Report
4	Sepang	David Cheng Ho-Pin Tung	Akira Iida Shogo Mitsuyama Naoki Yokomizo	Weng Sun Mok Toni Vilander	Zen Low Dilantha Malagamuwa Giorgio Sanna	Report

Championship Standings

Scoring system:

Teams Championships

The winners of the LMP2 championship and the top two finishers in the GTC championship earn automatic entry to the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans.

LMP2 Standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	INJ	FUJ	ZHU	SEP	Total	Private Manufacturers
1	OAK Racing	Morgan LMP2	Judd HK 3.6 L V8	19	19	26	25	89	Morgan158 Points
2	KCMG	Morgan LMP2	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	25	25		19	87	Oreca 33 Points
2	KCMG	Oreca 03	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8			18		87
3	Craft Racing	Oreca 03	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8				15	15

GTE Standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	INJ	FUJ	ZHU	SEP	Total	Manufacturers
1	Team Taisan Ken Endless	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	Ferrari F142 4.5 L V8	26	26	26	26	104	Ferrari 104 Points
2	Team AAI Rstrada	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6				18	18	Porsche 18 Points

GTC Standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	INJ	FUJ	ZHU	SEP	Total	Manufacturers
1	AF Corse	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari F142 4.5 L V8	25	18	26	18	87	Ferrari113 Points
2	#007 Craft Racing	Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3	Aston Martin 6.0 L V12	1	26		15	57	Aston Martin52 Points
2	#007 Craft Racing	Ford GT GT3	Ford 5.0 L V8			15		57	Mclaren50 Points
3	#91 Team AAI Rstrada	McLaren MP4-12C GT3	McLaren 3.8L V8	12	10	18		48	Porsche45 Points
3	#91 Team AAI Rstrada	BMW Z4 GT3	BMW 4.4 L V8				8	48	Lamborghini39 Points
4	BBT Racing	Lamborghini Gallardo GT3	Lamborghini 5.2L V10	15	0	12	12	39	Ford15 Points
5	Team Taisan Ken Endless	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6	18	12			30	BMW8 Points
6	Clearwater Racing	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari F142 4.5 L V8				26	26
7	Pacific Direction Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6		15			15
8	#92 Team AAI Rstrada	McLaren MP4-12C GT3	McLaren 3.8L V8	0	0	10		10
9	#009 Craft Racing	Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3	Aston Martin 6.0 L V12				10	10

Drivers Championships

LMP2 Standings

Pos	Driver	Team	INJ	FUJ	ZHU	SEP	Total
1	David Cheng	OAK Racing	19	19	26	25	89
2	James Winslow	KCMG	25	25	18	19	87
3	Ho-Pin Tung	OAK Racing	19		26	25	70
4	Gary Thompson	KCMG	25		18		43
5	Richard Bradley	KCMG		25			40
5	Richard Bradley	Craft Racing				15	40
6	Jeffrey Lee	OAK Racing	19	19			38
7	Shaun Thong	OAK Racing			26		26
8	Akash Nandy	KCMG	25				25
8	Hiroshi Koizumi	KCMG		25			25
9	Cong Fu Cheng	OAK Racing		19			19
9	Tsugio Matsuda	KCMG				19	19
10	Jordan Oon	KCMG			18		18
11	Jun Jin Pu	Craft Racing				15	15
11	Dan Polley	Craft Racing				15	15

GTE Standings

Pos	Driver	Team	INJ	FUJ	ZHU	SEP	Total
1	Naoki Yokomizo	Team Taisan Ken Endless	26		26	26	78
	Akira Iida	Team Taisan Ken Endless		26	26	26	78
	Shogo Mitsuyama	Team Taisan Ken Endless		26	26	26	78
2	Kamui Kobayashi	Team Taisan Ken Endless	26				26
2	Shinji Nakano	Team Taisan Ken Endless		26			26
3	Morris Chen	Team AAI Rstrada				18	18
	Ryohei Sakaguchi	Team AAI Rstrada				18	18
	Marco Seefried	Team AAI Rstrada				18	18

GTC Standings

Pos	Driver	Team	INJ	FUJ	ZHU	SEP	Total
1	Andrea Bertolini	AF Corse	25	18	26	18	87
	Michele Rugolo	AF Corse	25	18	26	18	87
	Steve Wyatt	AF Corse	25	18	26	18	87
2	Frank Yu	Craft Racing	1	26	15	10	52
3	Jun San Chen	Team AAI Rstrada	12	10	18	8	48
4	Anthony Liu	BBT Racing	15	0	12	12	39
4	Davide Rizzo	BBT Racing	15	0	12	12	39
5	Tatsuya Tanigawa	Team AAI Rstrada		10	18	8	36
6	Keita Sawa	Craft Racing	1		15	15	31
7	Massimilliano Wiser	BBT Racing	15	0	12		27
8	Richard Lyons	Craft Racing		26			26
	Takeshi Tsuchiya	Team AAI Rstrada			18	8	26
	Weng Sun Mok	Clearwater Racing				26	26
	Toni Vilander	Clearwater Racing				26	26
9	Darryl O'Young	Craft Racing			15	10	25
10	Marco Seefried	Team AAI Rstrada		10	10		20
11	Kyosuke Mineo	Team Taisan Ken Endless	18				18
11	Yukinori Taniguchi	Team Taisan Ken Endless	18				18
12	Stefan Mücke	Craft Racing	1			15	16
13	Akira Mizutani	Pacific Direction Racing		15			15
	Yuya Sakamoto	Pacific Direction Racing		15			15
	You Yokomaku	Pacific Direction Racing		15			15
14	Akihiro Asai	Team AAI Rstrada	0				12
	Akihiro Asai	Team Taisan Ken Endless		12			12
	Naoya Gamou	Team Taisan Ken Endless		12			12
	Akira Iida	Team AAI Rstrada	12				12
	Fabio Babini	BBT Racing				12	12
15	Morris Chen	Team AAI Rstrada	0	0	10		10
	Yasushi Kikuchi	Team AAI Rstrada		0	10		10
	Tomonobu Fujii	Craft Racing				10	10
	Somchai Saksirivatekul	Team AAI Rstrada	0				0

Notes and References

Web site: LE MANS: 2013 Asian LMS Calendar Revealed . . . Dagys . John . 27 October 2012 . 2 November 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121127201229/http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/le-mans-2013-asian-lms-calendar-revealed . 2012-11-27 . dead .
Web site: GT300s to take part in Asian Le Mans Series Fuji Speedway race. . . 13 March 2013 . 3 April 2013 .
Web site: 2013 Asian Le Mans Series streamlines on advice of teams. . . 2 April 2013 . 3 April 2013 . 6 April 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130406074907/http://endurance-info.com/version2/news-focus-17057.html . dead .
Web site: Asian Le Mans Series – Korea becomes part of the 2013 calendar . https://archive.today/20130415091344/http://www.lemans.org/en/news/asian-le-mans-series-%E2%88%92-korea-becomes-part-of-the-2013-calendar_8929.html . dead . 15 April 2013 . . lemans.org . 2 October 2012 . 3 November 2012 .
Web site: Asian Le Mans Series launches inaugural calendar for 2013 . https://archive.today/20130415083127/http://www.lemans.org/en/news/asian-le-mans-series-launches-inaugural-calendar-for-2013-_9131.html . dead . 15 April 2013 . . lemans.org . 27 October 2012 . 3 November 2012 .
Web site: Inje : Un plateau de 11 autos pour le coup d'envoi. . endurance-info.com . 31 July 2013 . 1 August 2013 . 30 September 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130930205036/http://endurance-info.com/version2/actualite-endurance-19743.html . dead .
Web site: Inje : Keita Sawa renforce l'Aston Martin/Craft AMR. . endurance-info.com . 31 July 2013 . 1 August 2013 . 30 September 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130930195711/http://endurance-info.com/version2/actualite-endurance-19749.html . dead .
Web site: Inje : Quelques brèves avant le début du meeting. . endurance-info.com . 1 August 2013 . 1 August 2013 . 16 August 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130816182906/http://endurance-info.com/version2/actualite-endurance-19760.html . dead .