By Nancy Knapp Schilke - Motorsport.com
Jonny Cocker places Drayson Racing's Lola Coupe Judd LMP1 on the first pole for the Asian Le Mans Series with a hot lap of 1:19.143 during qualifying on Okayama International Circuit in the land of the Rising Sun. The Brit took four tours on the twisty 3.703 km (2.3 mile) Japanese track that 14 years was the site of the Japan Grand Prix Formula One race.
Due to the remote location of the circuit, the F1 cars only ran twice. Last year, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) returned to the circuit with the World Touring Car Championship. This year, the newly formed Asian Le Mans Series has joined the WTCC in this weekend's event that will also showcase Formula BMW Asian series Japan's Formula 4 series.
Cocker and Lord Paul Drayson are pleased with the performance of their new prototype which made its debut in the American Le Mans Series Petit Le Mans event in Road Atlanta this past September. The team had campaigned an Aston Martin Vantage in the LMGT2 class in the European Le Mans Series and at select ALMS events. Moving up to P1 has been a challenge for the team as Cocker explained in his recent blog at www.americanlemans.com website.
"I'm feeling good this weekend, now having driven the car a few times at Atlanta then a couple of weeks ago at Laguna; I'm starting to get to grips with the differences between the Aston Martin Vantage GT2 and the Lola coupe," said Cocker. "Each time we run the car we are learning lots. It's certainly been a pretty steep learning curve and I still can't help but feel that it's VERY, VERY fast in every single way. I suppose in making the step up from GT2 to LMP1 that's pretty inevitable. It's all making sense. The Lola coupe is an amazing car to drive and I'm looking forward to seeing how it feels around this tight and twisty circuit."
The best passing area for the faster prototypes will be on the long brack straight.
Christophe Tinseau and Shinji Nakano will slot second on the grid just 0.106 seconds adrift of pole winning time. Tinseau in the Sora Racing Pescarolo Judd tried on his final lap to better his earlier time of 1:19.249 and that of the pole winning time but fell short with a 1:19.370.
Team-ORECA-Matmut-AIM's Nicolas Lapierre had a best lap of 1:19.548 in his and Loic Duval's P1 Oreca AIM to take third on the overall grid.
One of the unique aspects of the Asian series is that instead of one race per weekend, they will have two -- both at 500 km each -- which Hugues de Chaunac, ORECA Group president commented that "It provides us with the opportunity to work on different parameters. In these shorter events strategy will assume even greater importance."
The first pole winner for the Asian series LMP2 class was Matthieu Lahaye for the Oak Racing team. Lahaye turned his fastest lap at a time of 1:23.790 in the Pescarolo Mazda he will share with Jacques Nicolet and Richard Hein.
Stealing the show in LMGT1 was Takeshi Tsuchiya in the Aston Martin DBR9 for the Japanese Hitotsuyama Team Nova and his co-driver Akihiro Tsuzuki. Tsuchiya's flyer was a 1:27.515 on his fourth and final lap with over a two second gap to the second fastest GT1.
Labre Competition's Carlo van Dam laid down his best at 1:29.827 to place second in the team's Saleen S7R. Third in the GT1 class was JLOC Lamborghini with Hiroyuki Iiri at the wheel, his best was a 1:30.679.
Tomas Enge laid down a flying lap at 1:30.721 to land the LMGT2 pole for Team Hong Kong Racing. Enge was only 0.126 seconds faster in the Aston Martin Vantage over Marc Lieb in a Porsche.
Leib's best for Team Felbermayr-Proton was 1:30.847 in the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. Third in GT2 was the JimGainer Racing's Ferrari F430 GT piloted by Tetsuya Tanaka with a 1:31.283.
Without a doubt the drivers from Japan or those who have raced on the Okayama circuit have a bit of an edge but the more experienced sports car racers will show their knowledge of driver changes and endurance events during the two races. Today was a learning curve of both the track and the cars. The weather was cloudy but dry today, rain could yet change the track conditions.
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