Asian Le Mans: CrowdStrike Racing Win Race 2 at Sepang
After a challenging Race 1 on Saturday, CrowdStrike Racing by APR has made an incredible comeback to win 4 Hours of Sepang Race 2 of the 2023 / 2024 Asian Le Mans Series at Sepang International Circuit.
A close battle for the lead broke out in the second hour, and saw the Portuguese team move into third, passing #90 TF Sport. Five minutes later they passed #3 DKR Engineering for second and were on a strong charge to the front of the field.
Once ahead of the pack, the Oreca 07 of George Kurtz, Colin Braun and Malthe Jakobsen controlled the action-packed race for the final two hours and took the checkered flag for CrowdStrike’s first win in Asia.
The winner of Race 1, 99 Racing, took second place in the final moments with an impressive pass by Louis Deletraz, to seal their second podium finish of the weekend for Al Harty Ahmad, Nikita Mazepin and Deletraz. In third place, was Giorgio Roda, Julien Andlauer and Rene Binder in the #22 Proton Competition Oreca 07.
The 2022 Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 champions, CD Sport, took the class victory from fourth on the grid, with Michael Jensen, Nick Adcock and Fabien Lavergne behind the wheel of the Ligier JS P320
After a podium finish in their first race with the Series in Race 1, the #26 Bretton Racing Ligier JS P320 – Nissan of Dan Skocdopole, Julien Gerbi and Stefan Mihnea moved up another position into second for Race 2. Saturday’s class winners, James Winslow, Alex Bukhantsov and Danial Frost in the #17 COOL Racing Ligier JS P320 – Nissan, finished third.
A start from sixth place did not hinder Alex Malykhin, Klaus Bachler and Joel Sturm in the #91 Pure Rxing Porsche 911 GT3 R, who stayed out of an incident-plagued race for the GT class, to win. Race 1 GT class victors #42 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO 2 of Christopher Haase, Gilles Magnus and Alban Varutti finished in second place, ahead of Mark Radcliffe, Rob Bell and Ollie Millroy in the #27 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3.
The Asian Le Mans Series now heads to the United Arab Emirates where the Series continues with Race 3 in the Dubai Autodrome, 3 – 4 February 2024.