FIA WEC, 6 Hours of Shanghai - Thursday Notes

A rather bleary eyed DSC team arrived this morning in Shanghai and, after a quick (very quick) trip on the world’s fastest commercially operated railway we arrived mid-afternoon at Shanghai International Circuit.

First things first - as reported here earlier Matt Bell is here and ready to take to the track tomorrow aboard the #55 JWA Avila Porsche.

ELMS Champion Mathias Beche joins ADR Delta as the team mount an attack on the overall LMP2 race win here, whilst Cong Fu Chen is confirmed aboard the #13 Rebellion Lola Toyota.

One late change is that Michael Waltrip isn’t here for the #61 AF Waltrip Ferrari, Rob Kaufmann reporting that:  “He had a late TV commitment with Showtime. He’s disappointed but that’s his priority.”

The sheer scale of this facility is quite mind blowing; the media room is sited on one of the two ‘pontoon’ bridges that span the pit straight, nine floors above track level.

After a couple of WEC races where the support package was somewhat shaky, this race looks far better with both the locally-based Audi R8 LMS Cup (17 cars entered) and the Asian Lamborghini Super Trofeo Gallardos (17 cars) will also do battle; plus a local Celebrity race on Saturday.

With the clock ticking on to 5pm local time and darkness rapidly falling, the lights are still burning brightly as the finishing touches are put to the astounding temporary pit facility that is being built for the one-make Audis. Floors and ramps are being painted, bollards welded and wiring completed on a three storey facility that was only started two weekends ago!

We’re off to get some much needed sleep before track action begins here tomorrow.

GG