RLR MSport storms to Asian Le Mans podium at sopping Sepang

RLR MSport stormed to an LMP3 podium finish in the 2024-25 Asian Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Sepang (6-8 December) with drivers James Dayson, Nick Adcock and Ian Aguilera.

The Silverstone-based team rebounded from an underwhelming Saturday (7 December) performance to get in among the fight for a top three result in Sunday’s race, which was truncated when extreme wet and stormy conditions struck the former home of the Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix.

European Le Mans Series (ELMS) LMP3 Champion Adcock was sent out into Qualifying and the South Africa-domiciled Brit locked in P2 starts for both Asian Le Mans contests, with only 0.019s between his fastest (2m02.476s) and second fastest (2m02.495s) times.

Seasonably intense Malaysian heat and humidity was a significant factor, particularly in relation to driver endurance and tyre life in what were challenging low-grip conditions, but there was an air of optimism because it was felt the #15 Ligier JSP320 LMP3 was “well sorted”.

In the first Asian Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Sepang (7 December), grid position proved critical, as RLR MSport in P2 was well away from the chaos that ensued as the tail end of the LMP3 pack negotiated the first corner complex.

Only one position was lost when the #15 Ligier of Adcock was pinched to the apex of Turn 2, the fast-starting #7 Graff Racing making good use of the outside line to slip into second.

A short while later, the vast majority of LMP3 teams minimised the impact of their first regulation pit stop during an early Virtual Safety Car (VSC), although RLR MSport was fourth in class at the restart because the #34 Inter Europol Competition chose not to box.

The #26 Bretton Racing car loomed large in Adcock’s rear-view mirrors and managed to prise open the door, but the #15 car was elevated back up into P4 when the #34 span into the gravel.

Another VSC followed and RLR MSport took the opportunity to burn its second timed stop while installing Mexico’s Aguilera, who quickly ascended into the podium places at the expense of the #43 Inter Europol, #49 High Class Racing and #26 Bretton cars.

A second-hour VSC restart presented an opportunity to pounce on both the #35 Ultimate and #7 Graff entries for the lead, the pass for P1 executed on the outside of the Turn 15 hairpin at around halftime.

Aguilera gapped the field by more than 20 seconds before giving up the #15 Ligier to Dayson, who fell to fifth against faster, more experienced Silver-graded drivers in a mid-race stint that featured long periods of green flag running.

Seventeen-year-old Aguilera returned to the fray to close out the 2024-25 Asian Le Mans curtain-raiser and he was often the quickest on-track, but traffic frustrated his pursuit of the fourth-placed #26 machine and he was still P5 at the chequered flag.

RLR MSport would have another stab at a podium finish from P2 in the second 4 Hours of Sepang on Sunday (8 December), and the team mixed up its strategy by choosing Dayson as its starting driver.

The Bronze-rated Canadian went backwards early on, settling into sixth position with pace and a relatively comfortable gap over the #49 High Class.

Fifth was inherited from a troubled opponent and Dayson consolidated the position by generating lap times that were often comparable to the lead quartet over the course of a solid race stint.

Dark clouds descended upon Sepang International Circuit and a wet track was declared as RLR MSport switched Dayson for Adcock at the top of the first hour.

Only a few drops of rain fell, slick tyres were still the order of the day and, despite losing out to the hard-charging #43 Inter Europol, Adcock made great strides into third at the expense of the #34 and #49 machines.

RLR MSport remained in podium contention once it had worked through its two hours of Bronze driver time and placed Aguilera in the hot seat, having decided not to follow rivals’ switch to wet weather tyres as rain fell intermittently.

Sepang was initially part-wet, part-dry and Aguilera confidently bettered the leaders’ lap times to go second in class, but the rain eventually intensified and RLR MSport was forced onto grooved Michelins during its final stop, conducted as scheduled in the typical LMP3 fuel window.

The Silverstone-based team gave up track position in the pits, but it was third and in the wheeltracks of the second-placed car when the race was finally red-flagged in response to the increasingly stormy, low-visibility conditions.

The results place RLR MSport, Dayson, Adcock and Aguilera third with a 27-point deficit to the current frontrunners in the battle for the 2024-25 Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 Teams and Drivers Trophies.

Adcock said: “Ian (Aguilera), James (Dayson) and I are absolutely delighted to have reached the podium, as RLR MSport worked really well and the car was brilliant. In Saturday’s race, mine and Ian’s stints were severely disrupted by Safety Cars, while James’s run was uninterrupted, and we fell backwards to fifth because he was on-track with a lot of very fast Silvers.

“However, our Sunday race strategy was better, James had a strong first stint, I made up some places to get into P3 and then Ian did a great job. It was unfortunate that the race was truncated by the rain, as we felt we could have won with Ian’s pace. Of course, we couldn’t make allowances for the weather in our race plan, so third place is a great result. We certainly have work to do in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, so we will regroup and push on there.”

Dayson added: “We achieved a great result in the second Asian Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Sepang. I think our strategy was stronger than the one we had in Saturday’s race. In fact, we could have had second position, but High Class Racing beat us out of the pits in the final stop because we lost time when a car pitted in front of Ian (Aguilera), who had to be pushed back into our pit box. If the race had restarted, I know Ian would have got the position back. Either way, it’s a great finish to the weekend. Nick (Adcock) drove really well and Ian excelled in trying conditions.”