Porsche Carrera Cup Teams Added to Shanghai Grid

Four teams from Porsche Carrera Cup Asia will enter this weekend’s Asian Le Mans Series opener in Shanghai.

Earl Bamber Motorsport, OpenRoad Racing, EKS Motorsports and Modena Motorsports will compete for the Porsche Endurance Trophy during Sunday’s four-hour contest.

Their addition was made possible by the Carrera Cup holding its final round of the year at Shanghai during last weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship event.

Cyrille Taesch Wahlen, managing director of the Asian Le Mans Series, said that the extra sub-class would “enable Porsche Carrera Cup Asia drivers to discover endurance racing.”

“Porsche has a long history with the ACO, and we are really pleased to extend the relationship into this region,” said Taesch Wahlen.

“We are excited to be able to offer Porsche Carrera Cup Asia teams and drivers the opportunity to race in an endurance race against the strong Asian Le Mans Series field, on their home region.

“The GT category is important to our Series, and to the ACO philosophy of multi-class racing. We are looking forward to seeing the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars adding to the exciting racing on track.”

Two-time Le Mans winner Earl Bamber’s eponymous team will run a car for Graeme Dowsett and Jeffrey Chiang, while the EKS Motorsports Porsche will be driven by Daniel Lu, Li Jai Qi and Bao Jinlong.

Modena Motorsports has named Benny Simonsen and Philippe Descombes in its entry, with Francis Tija the only driver confirmed so far by OpenRoad Racing.

“We are pleased to offer this unique opportunity for our Porsche customers to race as a part of the Asian Le Mans Series 4-hour endurance race in their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup,” said Alexandre Gibot, head of Porsche Motorsport Asia-Pacific.

“We hope that this is the start of a growing racing programme for our Porsche customers in the ACO platform throughout the Asia Pacific region.”