KCMG Wins in South Korea

Battling through adverse conditions early, KCMG broke though to claim a dominant win in Sunday’s Three Hours of Inje Asian Le Mans Series opener.

Gary Thompson took the Hong Kong-entered No. 18 Morgan-Nissan to a five-lap victory over the No. 77 AF Corse Ferrari 458 GT3, which claimed GTC class honors in the wet-turned-dry battle in South Korea.

Pole-sitter Ho-Pin Tung in the No. 24 OAK Racing Morgan-Judd led early but a series of pit lane infractions and a stall saw the Total-sponsored entry, shared by Jeffrey Lee and David Cheng, drop down to the running order.

A late charge by Lee resulted in a third place overall finish for the OAK entry, just 40 seconds behind the No. 77 AF Corse Ferrari of Steve Wyatt, Michele Rugolo and Andrea Bertolini, which came home second.

The day belonged to KCMG, however, with Thompson, James Winslow and 16-year-old Akash Nandy, the youngest driver to start a Le Mans series race, winning in his debut following an impressive performance from the Malaysian.

A solid podium run for the No. 007 Craft Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was derailed in the final hour when Stefan Mucke pitted with driveshaft failure, handing fourth place overall to the No. 70 Taisan Ken Endless Ferrari 458 GTE of Kamui Kobayashi and Naoki Yokomizo.

Taisan’s Super GT300-spec Porsche came home fifth overall, with the BBT Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 completing the podium in the GTC class.

Seven cars were classified at the finish, with only the Craft AMR entry not taking the checkered flag in the rebirth of the Asian Le Mans Series.

The series heads to Fuji Speedway on Sept. 22 for the second round of the season, which promises to deliver a grid boost in the form of GT300 cars.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John