Promising Saturday win and podium for Eurasia on the LMP3 in the second round of the Asian Le Mans Sprint Cup(6-7 August).
Mixed results for the LMP3 Eurasia Motorsport prepared Ligier LMP3 last weekend (6-7 August), with a front row turned into a win and a p2 on Saturday in Round 2 of the Asian Le Mans Sprint Cup (AsLMSC), held at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.
The Eurasia run LMP3 cars unlocked a double podium finish on Saturday’s race, with DC Racing’s James Winslow winning followed by WINEURASIA, but was haunted by mechanical issues on the AsLM Sprint Cup Sunday race.
Quickest on practice, Tanart Sathienthiarukul and Aidan Read qualified the WINEURASIA in second, behind the pole setter Winslow. The #1 Ligier JSP3 benefited of a good start and kept Tanart on the #94 WINEURASIA behind for most part of the race. Tanart took over the lead with two laps remaining on his stint, but a slow stop and traffic on Read’s out lap settled the race win on Winslow’s.
James Winslow, #1 DC Racing Ligier JSP3
“It was good. I got a good start. Tanart was quicker at the beginning of the race, we had a good dice. He came past me, then I passed him, three or four times, I lost count. I tried to save on the tyres a bit, because I knew that when Aidan would jump in, he’d be fresh and quick. So I saved on the brakes and the tyres, and in the end the car was pretty good. The team did a fantastic job, DC Racing and Eurasia. All credit to them. It’s a shame that (Dean Koutsoumidis) my co-driver couldn’t be here, I’m sure he would have loved to be on the top step of the podium, so a big thank you to him and thank you to the team.”
Aidan Read, #94 WINEURASIA Ligier JSP3
“It was quite a tricky race, but good nonetheless. Tanart did a great job in the first stint, with the speed he had and fought with James for the lead. In the pitstops, we lost a bit of time to James, so when I drove out of the pits, I had a bit of a gap and from there it was quite difficult to manage the car through the traffic, and after the oil went down, had some slight car issues, so it was about bringing the car to the finish. We know from practice and qualifying that we have a good pace in the car, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race.”
Tanart Sathienthirakul, #94 WINEURASIA Ligier JSP3
“I didn’t get a great start, nearly managed to pass James, but I had quite a few goes at him, but couldn’t make any of them stick until the last one. Maybe if I’d pitted a few laps before, it could have been different. Still, second is still better than nothing.”
On Sunday a driveshaft failure forced WINEURASIA to retire the #94 machine, while the DC Racing Ligier narrowly missed out on another podium in fourth.
Mark Goddard, Eurasia Motorsport Team Principal
“Saturday was very good for us, with both teams on the top. It cements the concept of taking drivers from the junior formulas to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and FIA World Endurance Championship via the Asian Le Mans Series and the Sprint Cup within the Eurasia organisation.”
