Jean-Francois Brunot helped bronze graded team-mate Douglas Khoo secure a brace of top five results in the GT Pro-Am class in the season finale of the Asian Le Mans Series in Abu Dhabi over the weekend, during two extremely challenging four-hour races.

Marking Brunot’s maiden appearance in the championship, his first outing with the YC Panda Racing team and debut races in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO, the French-American performed strongly and delivered excellent race pace at Yas Marina Circuit.

Due to his ‘Pro’ driver grading, under the ALMS regulations Brunot was only permitted to contest a maximum of 60 minutes in each encounter so team-mate Khoo had to do the bulk of the driving, meaning three hours of track time in both contests for the ‘Am’ racer.

Brunot did all he could, though, to make life easier for Khoo by delivering some very competitive racing in both contests. In Saturday’s race, Brunot sliced his way from the back of the grid during the opening stint to gain no fewer than 10 positions and take the Pro-Am lead. In the end, following a technical issue, some contact and lost time in the pits, Khoo brought the Audi home fifth in class.

In Sunday’s race, Khoo took the start and Brunot again delivered a terrific stint to help YC Panda Racing match Saturday’s result with fifth position in class. Reflecting on the weekend, he said: “Yas Marina with ALMS did not disappoint, it was great racing at this beautiful track and although it was a challenging weekend for the team, the races were very enjoyable.”

This post was written by JM