After experiencing strong growth this season, the Asian Le Mans Series is set to offer teams and drivers new challenges and exciting firsts in the 2019/20 Series.
With an increased audience, particularly in China, growing engagement and reach online, as well as a grid that has grown in depth and quality, the Asian Le Mans Series is cementing its position not only in Asia, but globally.
New Calendar:
Just as it did this season, the 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series will feature four races each of four hours in length, and it will again start in China at the Shanghai International Circuit on the final weekend of November. The opening race will continue to be run in conjunction with the China Touring Car Championship (CTCC).
As was recently announced (see here) 2020 will see the Series’ first visit to Australia. The second round of the Championship will be held on the 12th of January 2020 at The Bend. The Bend is Australia’s newest permanent circuit and is located approximately 100km from Adelaide in South Australia. The Asian Le Mans Series will be the first series to use the full 7.77km configuration of the circuit.
In a change to their traditional season ending date, the third round of the Championship will be held at the Sepang International Circuit. The race will be held on Saturday the 15th February in 2020.
In another first for the series, the 4 Hours of Sepang will finish at night with the second half of the race being run after sunset.
The final round of the 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series will be held at the Buriram International Circuit on the 23rd of February 2020. Moving away from the traditional mid January date, the Thai circuit will instead host the final round of the Championship.
The 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series calendar has been designed to ensure it avoids clashes with other Asian series and major events in the region, whilst also allowing for transport times for those teams from around the world wishing join the Series.
2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series Calendar details:
Round 1: 22 – 24 November 2019
Shanghai International Circuit, China
Round 2: 10 – 12 January 2020
The Bend, South Australia
Round 3: 14 – 15 February 2020
Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia
Round 4: 21 – 23 February 2020
Buriram Chang International Circuit, Thailand
24 Hours of Le Mans – Four invitations:
The four invitations to the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans will be awarded in the same way they were for the 2018/19 season. The winners of the LMP2, LMP2 AM Trophy, LMP3 and GT classes will each receive an invitation to compete in the iconic race.
Class structure:
The Class structure of the 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series will only see one change from the 2018/19 season. The Series will continue to provide a mix of both prototype and GT cars that is synonymous with Le Mans racing.
The only change will be to the cars eligible in the LMP2 and LMP2 Am categories. From the 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series, the latest generation LMP2 cars will be eligible to race in the outright class.The older generation cars will continue to be eligible within the Series, however from the 2019/20 season they will be limited to just the LMP2 Am Trophy class.
The full details will be released as a part of the technical and sporting regulations for the 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series.
Global Broadcast Reach:
The current Asian Le Mans Series has seen significant growth in the audience, particularly in China. The engagement and reach of the Series social media accounts have also grown considerably through increased and improved social content.
For the 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series the coverage will again grow, boosted by additional content, to deliver a world class broadcast programme. The highly popular live streams of all qualifying sessions and races will continue, as will the comprehensive global tv broadcast coverage programme.
The full details of the growth in coverage will be released after the final round of the season, and the full broadcast programme will be announced closer to the start of the season.
