29 cars entered in the 6 Hours of Shanghai - Speedway Digest

As the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship moves into the second part of its Far Eastern tour with the 6 Hours of Shanghai on Sunday, 2^nd November, attention is starting to turn more and more towards the points’ race and Championship titles. The racing action promises to be hotter and more intense than ever at Shanghai International Circuit in the People’s Republic of China.

With the addition of two LMP2 entries from Extreme Speed Motorsports, the grid for the sixth round of the season will be 29 cars and there is all to play for in each of the LMP and LMGTE categories.

Following Toyota Racing’s dominant performance in Japan which saw it regain control at the head of the points’ tables, expect both Audi and Porsche to be pushing hard for victory in China. While the Porsche Team’s 919 Hybrid is edging ever closer to its debut win in the FIA WEC, as witnessed by its strong podium finishing performance at Fuji, Audi will be using all its experience from past years to seek out its third win of 2014 for the R18 e-tron quattro and second since the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

As well as the six LMP1-H entries from Audi, Porsche and Toyota, there are also three LMP1-L cars on the entry list. Having already wrapped up the FIA Endurance Trophy for Privateer LMP1 Teams certainly doesn’t mean a drop-off in effort or concentration as far Rebellion Racing is concerned. Its No.13 line up will be hoping to replicate its success in the last round, and the Swiss team will be looking for a smoother race technically for the No.12 Rebellion R-One-Toyota. The Lotus team will be arriving in China early to start re-building the No.9 CLM P1/01 AER following its serious fuel fire in Japan, and fully intends to participate in the 6 Hours of Shanghai. James Rossiter and Pierre Kaffer will be joined for this round by young Austrian driver Lucas Auer.

As announced in Austin last month, the Tequila Patrón-backed Extreme Speed Motorsports team from the USA will be supplementing the LMP2 class with two HPD ARX 03B-Honda entries taking the total to seven. Expect the team’s highly experienced line up, which includes former Le Mans winner and WEC driver David Brabham, Patrón founder Ed Brown, and North American standouts Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek and Ryan Dalziel to challenge the normal order. The third driver in the No. 30 entry, with American Sharp and Florida-domiciled Briton Dalziel will be Ricardo Gonzalez of Mexico who is making a welcome return to the FIA WEC.

G-Drive Racing’s Russian-French line up of Rusinov-Pla-Canal closed the gap on SMP Racing’s Sergey Zlobin in the points in Japan, and will be planning to consolidate their position in the classifications with a fourth victory of the year. Winner in Austin, Texas – KCMG – will be hoping that the home advantage will play into its hands and that its ever-improving line up of Howson-Bradley-Imperatori will turn the tables on their rivals at G-Drive and take the flag at the head of LMP2. Also playing the home card is OAK Racing, with David Cheng and Ho-Pin Tung lining up in the No.35 Morgan-Judd alongside early-season GTE entrant, Mark Patterson. The class battle will be one of the fiercest on track!

While AF Corse and its Ferrari pairing of Bruni-Vilander extended their lead in the LMGTE Pro championship standings, the gap between Porsche Team Manthey and Aston Martin Racing is just three points and there is much at stake for both teams. All three manufacturers have stood on the top of the podium this year and the six entries include some of the world’s leading GTE drivers. Porsche’s GTE drivers all hold different places in the standings since the German company revised its pairings in the USA, with Aston Martin Racing’s LMGTE Am and Pro drivers chasing hard. This too will be a contest worth watching from start to finish.

The seven entries in LMGTE Am are season regulars, and Aston Martin Racing’s No.95 ‘Dane Train’ of Heinemeier Hansson-Poulsen-Thiim will be keen to consolidate their position at the head of the class standings. They have been chased hard in recent rounds by their team mates in the No.98 (Dalla Lana-Lamy-Nygaard), but AF Corse Ferrari’s Perez-Companc-Cioci-Venturi will be keen to follow up on their Spa victory. The Porsches of ProSpeed Competition and Proton Competition have been performing better and better in the last two rounds, and the latter’s Khaled Al Qubaisi will be especially keen to get a good result as he heads into the Middle Eastern round of the championship. The USA’s Jeff Segal remains with the No.90 8Star Motorsport Ferrari alongside Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti, so the line up in the category is unchanged since Japan.

Practice and qualifying for the 6 Hours of Shanghai takes place on Friday, 31^st October and Saturday, 1^st November while the race itself will start at 11h00 local (05h00 CET) on Sunday 2nd November.

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.