Leitch excited heading to opening Asian Le Mans Series round in Sepang

Brendon Leitch and his Wegberg (Germany) based Leipert Motorsport team are heading to the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia for the first two rounds of the 2023/24 Asian Le Mans Series this weekend. Along with teammates, top AM (Amateur) driver Gabriel Rindone and Lamborghini factory driver Marco Mapelli, the team will be looking to improve on their fourth overall in the GT category earlier this year in the 2023 series.

“Absolutely looking forward to it,” commented Leitch. “It’s great to be back with Gabby (Rindone) and Marco (Mapelli), I think we have a really good chance of winning.”

Driving a factory-supported Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2, the team have two four-hour races in a very competitive field of GT3 cars.

“There are a number of teams and drivers back from last season,” said Leitch. “It won’t be a walk in the park at all as there are some super strong drivers.

“While qualifying is important, it’s not critical. The most important thing is the first three hours of each race and staying on the lead lap within striking distance of the leader. Marco and I have a minimum 65 minutes in the car while Gabby has a 90-minute stint.

“Sepang is a super track which I last raced back in 2019 in F3 and again in Super Trofeo. I really like it as it is both technical with high-speed corners. It can be hard on tyres.

“I don’t have any GT3 experience there although I expect our car to be pretty good on heavy braking and the high-speed corners while we may not like both the two long straights as we don’t have the top end speed.”

Testing takes place on Friday with qualifying and Round 1 on Saturday and Round 2 on Sunday.

The opening round will feature 39 cars and 117 drivers including winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans along with many regulars from the FIA World Endurance Championship. There are three categories competing in each race – LMP2, LMP3 and GT3.