Jensen, Slade Complete WEC Clash Subs for Buriram Finale

Mikkel Jensen and Tim Slade will replace Asian Le Mans Series drivers heading to the Lone Star Le Mans FIA World Endurance Championship race which clashes with this weekend’s season-ending 4 Hours of Buriram.

Reigning European Le Mans Series LMP3 champion Jensen will make his Asian LMS debut in Car Guy Racing’s Ferrari 488 GT3 as a substitute for Kei Cozzolino.

The Dane, who last drove a Ferrari in the 2016 ELMS 4 Hours of Le Castellet, will share driving duties with Takeshi Kimura and Come Ledogar while Cozzolino represents MR Racing in the WEC’s GTE-Am class at Circuit of The Americas.

Australian Supercars regular Slade, meanwhile, will drive the HubAuto Corsa Ferrari as a stand-in for Davide Rigon.

Slade is a familiar face at the HubAuto organization, having represented the team in the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour earlier this month as well as other previous GT3 races.

The Australian driver will team up with Marcos Gomes and Liam Talbot for his Asian LMS debut in place of Rigon who is racing for the Ferrari GTE-Pro team at COTA. 

Both Car Guy Racing and HubAuto Corsa are title contenders in the GT class, with only three points separating the two teams from championship leader Team JLOC.

Cozzolino and Rigon are two of four drivers unable to take part in the Asian LMS season finale at Buriram because of the scheduling conflict, which was caused by the WEC replacing Sao Paulo with COTA and changing the date to accommodate this locational switch.

The other affected Asian LMS drivers are Alessandro Pier Guidi and Ross Gunn, whose replacements were confirmed prior to the entry list coming out.

Pier Guidi, who like Rigon is a Ferrari GTE-Pro works driver, will be replaced by Daniel Serra at Spirit of Race while Gunn’s seat in the D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 will be taken up by Tom Gamble.

A total of 23 cars are on the entry list for the Buriram finale, marking the same amount that competed in the penultimate round at Sepang last weekend.

There is one driver change of note in the LMP2 class with Nobuya Yamanaka, who raced in the Shanghai season-opener, returning to the No. 1 Eurasia Motorsport Ligier JS P217 Gibson.

The Japanese driver effectively replaces Masataka Yanagida who shared the car with Nick Cassidy and Daniel Gaunt in last weekend’s round.

In LMP3, experienced Australian racer Neale Muston will replace Rory Penttinen in Graff’s  No. 8 Norma M30 Nissan alongside Matthias Kaiser.