2009 1000 km of Okayama

The 2009 1000 km of Okayama was the inaugural event of Automobile Club de l'Ouest's (ACO) Asian Le Mans Series. It was held at the Okayama International Circuit, Japan and feature two 500 km races held on 30 October and 1 November 2009. The winning teams in each of the four categories earned an automatic invitation to the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans. A second Asian Le Mans Series event, scheduled for the Shanghai International Circuit, China, on 7 and 8 November was cancelled by the ACO due to economic circumstances.[1] The race weekend is being shared with the World Touring Car Championship's Race of Japan.

2009 Asian Le Mans Series
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The start of the 2009 1000km of Okayama (Race 1).

Entries

The ACO's initial plans for the debut event of the Asian Le Mans Series was for a minimum of 30 entries. On 9 May 2009 the ACO announced an initial entry of 31 teams which would consist of competitors from the Le Mans Series, American Le Mans Series, FIA GT Championship, Super GT, as well as other local Japanese and Chinese teams. The ACO agreed to supply applying teams with freight transport in an attempt to lure further entries.

A second entry list was published on 1 September and included 23 cars. The final entry list is led by Europeans in the LMP1 category featuring Pescarolo Sport entered under the Sora Racing title, two Kolles Audis, an Le Mans Series-champion Aston Martin, one Oreca, and the new Drayson Lola. The sole Japanese entrant in the category was from Tōkai University/YGK Power, who last competed at the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans. LMP2 features a mere two entries, both from the Le Mans Series. OAK Racing enters their Mazda-powered Pescarolo while Ibañez Racing Service enters their Courage-AER for a shot at a Le Mans invitation.

Entries in the GT1 category were predominantly Japanese, all of which are teams currently entered in the Super GT series. Hitotsuyama Team Nova's Aston Martin was joined by the experienced JLOC Lamborghinis. The sole European entry was the Larbre Compétition Saleen. In GT2 there were a variety of entries and cars, led by the first entries from the American Le Mans Series: Rahal Letterman Racing brought one of their new BMW M3s while Robertson Racing represents Ford. Felbermayr-Proton's two Porsches and Team Farnbacher's Hankook-shod Ferrari were entered from the Le Mans Series, while Hankook-KTR, Team Daishin, and JimGainer came from Super GT. Scuderia Forme also entered their Porsche 996 which had previously competed in the Japan Le Mans Challenge. A lone Chinese entry came in the form of an Aston Martin for Team Hong Kong Racing.[2]

The top two teams from the 2009 Formula Le Mans Cup series were to also receive free entries for the event, but a scheduling conflict with the new Formula Le Mans Winter Series prevented teams from participating.

Qualifying

Jonny Cocker led the field in the Drayson Lola-Judd, earning the first pole position for himself and the team. A tenth of a second behind was Christophe Tinseau in the Sora Pescarolo 01, while Nicolas Lapierre was a further three tenths of a second behind for Oreca. Mathieu Laheye was the victor amongst the two LMP2 cars, beating the Ibañez Courage by three seconds.[3]

GT1 was led by the local Hitotsuyama Team Nova Aston Martin of Takeshi Tsuchiya, but the car was later disqualified for a rear wing violation.[4] This gave the Larbre Saleen pole position in the category, ahead of the two JLOC Lamborghinis. A similar story in GT2 featured the Team Hong Kong Aston Martin initially setting the fastest time but later being disqualified for the same rule violation.[4] Marc Lieb's Felbermayr-Proton Porsche thus was promoted to pole position, leading the JimGainer Ferrari and the second Felbermayr-Proton entry.[3] The two disqualified Aston Martins will be required to start from the back of the grid.

Qualifying result

Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold. The qualifying positions will set the starting grid for both races.[5]

Pos Class Team Qualifying Driver Lap Time
1 LMP1 No. 87 Drayson Racing Jonny Cocker 1:19.143
2 LMP1 No. 17 Sora Racing Christophe Tinseau 1:19.249
3 LMP1 No. 10 Team Oreca Matmut AIM Nicolas Lapierre 1:19.548
4 LMP1 No. 007 Aston Martin Racing Stefan Mücke 1:19.747
5 LMP1 No. 14 Kolles Christijan Albers 1:20.165
6 LMP1 No. 15 Kolles Oliver Jarvis 1:20.297
7 LMP2 No. 24 OAK Racing Matthieu Lahaye 1:23.790
8 LMP1 No. 11 Tōkai University/YGK Power Shogo Mitsuyama 1:25.847
9 LMP2 No. 29 Ibañez Racing Service José Ibañez 1:26.647
10 GT1 No. 50 Larbre Compétition Carlo van Dam 1:29.827
11 GT1 No. 69 JLOC Hiroyuki Iiri 1:30.679
12 GT2 No. 77 Team Felbermayr-Proton Marc Lieb 1:30.847
13 GT1 No. 68 JLOC Koji Yamanishi 1:30.873
14 GT2 No. 85 JimGainer Racing Tetsuya Tanaka 1:31.283
15 GT2 No. 88 Team Felbermayr-Proton Marco Holzer 1:31.515
16 GT2 No. 92 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Dirk Müller 1:31.665
17 GT2 No. 71 Team Daishin Takayuki Aoki 1:31.733
18 GT2 No. 40 Robertson Racing David Murry 1:31.746
19 GT2 No. 89 Hankook Team Farnbacher Allan Simonsen 1:31.977
20 GT2 No. 98 Hankook KTR Masami Kageyama 1:32.258
21 GT2 No. 81 Scuderia Forme Tadakazu Kojima 1:39.442
22 GT1 No. 61 Hitotsuyama Team Nova Takeshi Tsuchiya Disallowed
23 GT2 No. 91 Team Hong Kong Racing Tomáš Enge Disallowed

Race One
Shinji Nakano driving the Sora Racing car to victory in Race One

The first 500 km race was led early by Jonny Cocker in the Drayson Lola-Judd before Cocker was forced to pit for headlight repairs, dropping him several laps behind the leaders. The Aston Martin Racing entry led for much of the three hours before being forced to make an extra pit stop for fuel in the closing minutes, allowing the Sora Pescarolo to win the first race of the weekend. Drivers Christophe Tinseau and Shinji Nakano led the second place Oreca by a margin of 6.9 seconds at the finish, while the third place No. 15 Kolles Audi was two laps behind in third. OAK Racing won the LMP2 category by 22 seconds over their only other competitor.

In the GT1 class it was the Japanese teams which dominated as JLOC's No. 69 Lamborghini won the category by fifteen seconds over the Hitotsuyama Team Nova Aston Martin. The Larbre Saleen and second JLOC Lamborghini failed to finish the race. GT2 was led by the American entry from Rahal Letterman BMW, finishing three tenths of a second ahead of European Felbermayr-Proton Porsche and Farnbacher Ferrari.

Race result

Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance are marked as Not Classified (NC).[6]

Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Tyre Laps
Engine
1 LMP1 17 Sora Racing Christophe Tinseau
Shinji Nakano		 Pescarolo 01 M 126
Judd GV5.5 S2 5.5 L V10
2 LMP1 10 Team Oreca Matmut AIM Nicolas Lapierre
Loïc Duval		 Oreca 01 M 126
AIM YS5.5 5.5 L V10
3 LMP1 15 Kolles Christian Bakkerud
Oliver Jarvis		 Audi R10 TDI M 125
Audi TDI 5.5 L Turbo V12
(Diesel)
4 LMP1 007 Aston Martin Racing Harold Primat
Stefan Mücke		 Lola-Aston Martin B09/60 M 124
Aston Martin 6.0 L V12
5 LMP1 14 Kolles Christijan Albers
Matteo Cressoni
Hideki Noda		 Audi R10 TDI M 122
Audi TDI 5.5 L Turbo V12
(Diesel)
6 LMP1 87 Drayson Racing Paul Drayson
Jonny Cocker		 Lola B09/60 M 121
Judd GV5.5 S2 5.5 L V10
7 LMP2 24 OAK Racing
Team Mazda France		 Jacques Nicolet
Matthieu Lahaye
Richard Hein		 Pescarolo 01 D 116
Mazda MZR-R 2.0 L Turbo I4
8 LMP2 28 Ibañez Racing Service José Ibañez
Damien Toullemonde
Frédéric Da Rocha		 Courage LC75 D 116
AER P07 2.0 L Turbo I4
9 LMP1 11 Tōkai University
YGK Power		 Shogo Mitsuyama
Shigekazu Wakisaka		 Courage-Oreca LC70 Y 115
YGK YR40T 4.0 L Turbo V8
10 GT1 69 JLOC Atsushi Yogo
Hiroyuki Iiri		 Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT Y 113
Lamborghini 6.0 L V12
11 GT2 92 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Tommy Milner
Dirk Müller		 BMW M3 GT2 D 113
BMW 4.0 L V8
12 GT2 77 Team Felbermayr-Proton Marc Lieb
Wolf Henzler		 Porsche 997 GT3-RSR M 113
Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
13 GT1 61 Hitotsuyama Team Nova Akihiro Tsuzuki
Takeshi Tsuchiya		 Aston Martin DBR9 Y 113
Aston Martin 6.0 L V12
14 GT2 89 Hankook Team Farnbacher Dominik Farnbacher
Allan Simonsen		 Ferrari F430 GT2 H 113
Ferrari 4.0 L V8
15 GT2 88 Team Felbermayr-Proton Christian Ried
Marco Holzer		 Porsche 997 GT3-RSR M 112
Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
16 GT2 85 JimGainer Racing Tetsuya Tanaka
Katsuyuki Hiranaka		 Ferrari F430 GT2 Y 112
Ferrari 4.0 L V8
17 GT2 71 Team Daishin Takayuki Aoki
Tomonobu Fujii		 Ferrari F430 GT2 Y 111
Ferrari 4.0 L V8
18 GT2 98 Hankook KTR Mitsuhiro Kinoshita
Masami Kageyama		 Porsche 997 GT3-RSR H 109
Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6
19 GT2 40 Robertson Racing David Robertson
Andrea Robertson
David Murry		 Ford GT-R Mk. VII D 108
Ford 5.0 L V8
20 GT2 91 Team Hong Kong Racing Philip Ma
Jeffrey Lee
Tomáš Enge		 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2 Y 107
Aston Martin 4.5 L V8
21
DNF		 GT1 50 Larbre Compétition Roland Berville
Stéphane Lémeret
Carlo van Dam		 Saleen S7-R M 81
Ford 7.0 L V8
22
DNF		 GT1 68 JLOC Koji Yamanishi
Yuya Sakamoto		 Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT Y 37
Lamborghini 6.0 L V12
23
DNF		 GT2 81 Scuderia Forme Tadakazu Kojima
K. R. Hori
Masao Kimura		 Porsche 996 GT3-RSR Y 3
Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6

Race Two

The second race started with the same grid as the first race, which allowed Jonny Cocker to once again lead the opening laps in Drayson Lola. Stefan Mücke in the Aston Martin was able to catch Cocker and take the lead several laps in, which it maintained for the rest of the event and took the second of the weekend's checkered flags. Race one winners Sora Racing finished in second but over a minute behind the Aston Martin. Oreca once again finished on the podium with third. In LMP2, early damage to the Ibañez Courage allowed OAK Racing to win the second race unchallenged.

In the GT1 category the class was again dominated by the Hitotsuyama Aston Martin and the No. 68 JLOC Lamborghini, although it was Hitotsuyama who were the victors in this round, winning by over a lap. The Larbre Compétition Saleen was third in class, just losing out to the Lamborghini by less than two tenths of a second. In the GT2 category the race one-winning No. 77 Felbermayr-Proton Porsche suffered an engine failure early in the event, allowing the second team car and the Robertson Ford to fight for the class lead. Engine problems set the Ford back but Felbermayr-Proton were still not able to secure victory as the Hankook Farnbacher Ferrari was able to make it into the top position at the end of the three hours. The Japanese Team Daishin Ferrari completed the podium in third.

Race result

Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance are marked as Not Classified (NC).

Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Tyre Laps
Engine
1 LMP1 007 Aston Martin Racing Harold Primat
Stefan Mücke		 Lola-Aston Martin B09/60 M 128
Aston Martin 6.0 L V12
2 LMP1 17 Sora Racing Christophe Tinseau
Shinji Nakano		 Pescarolo 01 M 128
Judd GV5.5 S2 5.5 L V10
3 LMP1 10 Team Oreca Matmut AIM Nicolas Lapierre
Loïc Duval		 Oreca 01 M 128
AIM YS5.5 5.5 L V10
4 LMP1 87 Drayson Racing Paul Drayson
Jonny Cocker		 Lola B09/60 M 127
Judd GV5.5 S2 5.5 L V10
5 LMP1 15 Kolles Christian Bakkerud
Oliver Jarvis		 Audi R10 TDI M 127
Audi TDI 5.5 L Turbo V12
(Diesel)
6 LMP1 14 Kolles Christijan Albers
Matteo Cressoni
Hideki Noda		 Audi R10 TDI M 125
Audi TDI 5.5 L Turbo V12
(Diesel)
7 LMP2 24 OAK Racing
Team Mazda France		 Jacques Nicolet
Matthieu Lahaye
Richard Hein		 Pescarolo 01 D 118
Mazda MZR-R 2.0 L Turbo I4
8 GT1 61 Hitotsuyama Team Nova Akihiro Tsuzuki
Takeshi Tsuchiya		 Aston Martin DBR9 Y 115
Aston Martin 6.0 L V12
9 GT1 69 JLOC Atsushi Yogo
Hiroyuki Iiri		 Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT Y 114
Lamborghini 6.0 L V12
10 GT1 50 Larbre Compétition Roland Berville
Stéphane Lémeret
Carlo van Dam		 Saleen S7-R M 114
Ford 7.0 L V8
11 GT2 89 Hankook Team Farnbacher Dominik Farnbacher
Allan Simonsen		 Ferrari F430 GT2 H 114
Ferrari 4.0 L V8
12 GT2 88 Team Felbermayr-Proton Christian Ried
Marco Holzer		 Porsche 997 GT3-RSR M 113
Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
13 GT1 68 JLOC Koji Yamanishi
Yuya Sakamoto		 Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT Y 113
Lamborghini 6.0 L V12
14 GT2 71 Team Daishin Takayuki Aoki
Tomonobu Fujii		 Ferrari F430 GT2 Y 113
Ferrari 4.0 L V8
15 GT2 98 Hankook KTR Mitsuhiro Kinoshita
Masami Kageyama		 Porsche 997 GT3-RSR H 112
Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6
16 GT2 92 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Tommy Milner
Dirk Müller		 BMW M3 GT2 D 110
BMW 4.0 L V8
17 GT2 40 Robertson Racing David Robertson
Andrea Robertson
David Murry		 Ford GT-R Mk. VII D 105
Ford 5.0 L V8
18 GT2 91 Team Hong Kong Racing Philip Ma
Jeffrey Lee
Tomáš Enge		 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2 Y 93
Aston Martin 4.5 L V8
19 LMP2 28 Ibañez Racing Service José Ibañez
Damien Toullemonde
Frédéric Da Rocha		 Courage LC75 D 92
AER P07 2.0 L Turbo I4
20
NC		 GT2 81 Scuderia Forme Tadakazu Kojima
K. R. Hori
Masao Kimura		 Porsche 996 GT3-RSR Y 69
Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6
21
DNF		 GT2 85 JimGainer Racing Tetsuya Tanaka
Katsuyuki Hiranaka		 Ferrari F430 GT2 Y 62
Ferrari 4.0 L V8
22
DNF		 GT2 77 Team Felbermayr-Proton Marc Lieb
Wolf Henzler		 Porsche 997 GT3-RSR M 13
Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
DNS LMP1 11 Tōkai University
YGK Power		 Shogo Mitsuyama
Shigekazu Wakisaka		 Courage-Oreca LC70 Y  –
YGK YR40T 4.0 L Turbo V8
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gollark: I checked, it does not seem to be.

References
  1. Planetlemans.com Series Update (2009-08-04). "Asian Le Mans Series: The latest news". Planetlemans.com. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
  2. Planetlemans.com Series Update (2009-09-01). "Already 23 entries for a " Grande Première! "". Planetlemans.com. Archived from the original on 2009-09-06. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
  3. Marcel ten Caat (2009-10-30). "Asian Le Mans Series – Okayama Qualifying Report". PlanetLeMans.com. Archived from the original on 2 November 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
  4. "The LM GT1 & GT2 Aston Martins disqualified!". Automobile Club de l'Ouest. 2009-10-30. Archived from the original on September 6, 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
  5. "Qualifying". Automobile Club de l'Ouest. 2009-10-30. Archived from the original on November 2, 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
  6. "PDF Booklet" (PDF). Asian Le Mans Series. 2009-10-31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
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