20 Cars Confirmed for Second Round at Fuji

A total of 20 cars will take part in this weekend’s Asian Le Mans Series round at Fuji Speedway.

The number is down seven from last month’s Shanghai season-opener due to the absence of all three Jackie Chan DC Racing cars and the discontinuation of the one-off Porsche Endurance Trophy.

The omission of the No. 1 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 05 Nissan means the LMP2 grid now has seven cars listed.

Driver lineups are largely unchanged, with only Ate de Jong absent in the No. 24 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier JS P2 Judd that will be driven this weekend by Andrea Pizzitola and Harrison Newey.

Pipo Derani, Come Ledogar and Alexander West head into the 4 Hours of Fuji as LMP2 championship leaders after coming through from the back of the field to win at Shanghai.

Jackie Chan DC Racing has also withdrawn both its LMP3 entries from Fuji, meaning a total of eight cars will take part in the class this weekend.

The R24 crew will run Anna Inotsume alongside Marie Iwaoka, after Sarah Bovy and Stephanie Kox joined Awaoka in the team’s Ligier JS P3 Nissan last time out.

United Autosports has also shuffled one of its LMP3 lineups with 2016 European Le Mans Series champion Christian England replacing Jim McGuire in the No. 3 Ligier.

In the GT ranks, Tianshi Racing Team will return with two Audi R8 LMS GT3s after one of its cars was ruled out of the Shanghai weekend because of a fire.

The Chinese squad needed to scramble a Mercedes-AMG GT3 at short notice to compete in the opening race of the season.

Qualifying is set to take place on Saturday, December 8, at 2:45 p.m local time (12:05 a.m eastern, 5:25 a.m GMT).

Both qualifying and Sunday’s race will be streamed live on the Asian Le Mans Series YouTube and Facebook chennels, as well as MotorTrend on Demand.