Layout of the Okayama International Circuit

The start of the 2009 1000km of Okayama (Race 1).

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.

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.

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

References

External links

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