42 cars registered for the season opener in Sepang – Sportscar365

Photo: Asian Le Mans Series

A 42-car entry list for next month’s opening round of the Asian Le Mans Series at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia has been released.

The list, published late last week, includes ten cars fighting for overall victory in the top LMP2 class, plus seven LMP3 cars and a record field of 25 GT cars competing in two four-hour races on December 7th and 8th will compete.

However, compared to the last provisional entry list for the full season released in October, this represents a drop of three cars, with AF Corse’s No. 52 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo out along with the two Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos the mention has been deleted.

Another change is that Inter Europol Competition’s No. 34 car, originally one of 11 cars in LMP2, was demoted to LMP3, where only six cars were originally to be entered.

The entry confirms almost all riders who will take part in Sepang.

Reigning LMP2 champion Algarve Pro Racing has selected three of its drivers from the recently concluded European Le Mans Series: bronze-winning Greek driver Kriton Lentoudis, Olli Caldwell and Alex Quinn to drive its No. 20 Oreca.

The sister car No. 24 will be driven by Dane Michael Jensen, who is moving up from LMP3, Peugeot Hypercar racing driver Malthe Jakobsen – who won the 2023/24 title together with George Kurtz and Colin Braun – and single-seater convert Valerio Rinicella.

DKR Engineering has enlisted the services of Laurents Horr and Job van Uitert to partner another Greek rider, Georgios-Periklis Kolovos, the Oreca No. 3.

The No. 83 AF Corse squad, consisting of Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Matthieu Vaxiviere, is the only LMP2 trio to return from the 2023-24 season without changes.

They will be joined in the sister car #50 by veteran Olivier Pla and American duo Jeremy Clarke and Patrick Byrne.

Also represented with two cars is Proton Competition, whose car number 10 will be driven by Jonas Ried, Mathias Beche and a yet to be confirmed bronze medalist.

Tom Dillmann and Vlad Lomko, who previously drove for Inter Europol in LMP2, will drive the number 22 together with Giorgio Roda.

The Pure Rxcing effort, run by TF Sport, is led by Alex Malykhin, who won the GT title with the Lithuanian team last year, Harry King and Wayne Taylor Racing IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship star Louis Deletraz.

As previously announced, RD Limited has signed Fred Poordad, Tristan Vautier and James Allen for its debut LMP2 season, while Nicky Catsburg leads Nielsen Racing’s one-car entry alongside Naveen Rao and Matt Bell.

Reigning LMP3 champions Alexander Bukhantsov and James Winslow have switched to Graff for their title defense and will share the Swiss team’s No.7 Ligier with Danial Frost, who raced with the pair in Sepang last year.

Runner-up Nick Adcock has teamed up with Ian Aguilera and James Dayson to drive the No.14 Ligier for British squad RLR MSport.

As previously announced, two-thirds of last season’s title-winning GT crew are back: Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler are joined by Antares Au in today’s #10 Manthey-Porsche 911 GT3 R (originally listed as #33).

The No. 92 sister car will be driven by Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz in a preview of the German team’s FIA World Endurance Championship lineup.

Numerous other well-known faces from global GT3 racing are also represented in the GT division, including Ferrari works drivers Davide Rigon and Daniel Serra, Mercedes-AMG stars Ralf Aron, Fabian Schiller, Lucas Auer and Maro Engel, Alessio Picariello and Laurin Heinrich from Porsche as well as Tom from McLaren Gamble and Aston Martin man Marco Sorensen.

Elsewhere, factory Corvette driver Nico Varrone returns to AF Corse to join Conrad Laursen and Charles-Henri Samani in the No. 82 AF Corse-Ferrari, while Lexus IMSA regular Ben Barnicoat joins Parker Thompson and Anthony McIntosh as part of the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes teams is .

The two four races of the 4H Sepang are scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. local time (1:00 a.m. EDT), one on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Jamie Klein is the Asian Editor of Sportscar365. Japan-based Klein, who previously worked for Motorsport Network on the Motorsport.com and Autosport titles, covers the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship and SUPER GT, among other areas.