Hong Kong race driver Antares Au (HKG) took a dramatic win in the final race of the 2024-2025 Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) at the Abu Dhabi Yas Marina Circuit, crowning him the 2024-2025 ALMS GT Drivers Champion, alongside teammates Klaus Bachler (AUT) and Joel Sturm (GER). Their #10 Porsche 911 GT3 R entry encountered numerous setbacks during earlier stages of the 6-race endurance campaign, only for the trio to rebound in the last race and write a fairytale ending. The combined efforts of the drivers also saw their team, Manthey Racing, emerge victorious as the 2024-2025 ALMS GT Teams Champion, earning Au a coveted invitation to the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans, scheduled to take place on June 14-15, 2025.
The team has been trailing the championship standings and saw an uphill battle as they entered the final week of a turbulent ALMS season. #10 met hardships in each of the previous rounds in Sepang and Dubai, where crashes and mistakes denied them opportunities to gain valuable points. Au and his teammates arrived at Yas Marina last week P3 in the championship, 17 points behind then-leader Winward #81 Mercedes-AMG, with a mere 52 points remaining for grabs over two races.
#10 showed strong pace in the early practice sessions together with the #92 sister car. However, its odds plummeted after qualifying, when three red flags in a 15-minute period denied Au the opportunity to set a representative laptime. #10 car was to start the championship-deciding races from the back, whereas the two leading championship contenders #81 and #92 would start from the front, some 20-cars apart.
As with previous races in the season, Race 1 began with Au in a double-stint to cover the mandatory bronze drive time requirement of 105 minutes. Despite starting from a lowly P22, Au charged through the field and climbed to P9 before handing the car to Sturm. Continued efforts by Sturm, plus an effective pit strategy during safety car, brought #10 to P3 when Bachler took over in the final hour. A mistake by the Mercedes-AMG in P2 brought them into the pit with minutes remaining, promoting #10 to P2 at the finish, but crucially behind the #92 sister car which had led much of the race from a favorable starting position.
Race 1 helped #10 to a valuable points haul but did not help when #92’s victory allowed it to widen its lead. Going into the final race on Sunday, #10 trailed 9 points behind #92—an identical sister car with comparable pace and strength.
Race 2 again saw early chaos and interruption under red flag. Au started the four hours this time in a more favorable P7, directly behind #92, but shuffled down to P11 in the initial chaos. As the race began to settle for others, Au found himself in a repeat of Saturday as he clawed through the field. Twice he pulled off double-overtakes in corners where the #10 Porsche excelled, leaving both team and fans on the edge of their seats. #10’s heated charge appeared to be paying off, when it climbed to P4 by the end of the first hour. Around this time, Au was found to have been out of position at the race start and penalized with a drive-through. All seemed lost when #10 dropped to P12 after serving the penalty, but the team decided to adapt its strategy and extend Au’s stint, to gamble for a late-race safety car so #10 might recover lost time by pitting during intervention.
Au repeated battling through the field during this time, and rose to P1 after some of its key competitors had pitted. Then the strategy gamble paid off: a safety car intervention before the two-hour mark allowed Au to pit and hand the car to Bachler, without sacrificing #10’s lead over key competitors. Bachler and Sturm scuffled for positions during their stints, but would ultimately pull out a commanding gap over the P2 Aston Martin to win the final race for #10.
This final win crucially allowed #10 to leapfrog #92 with 10 points leading and reached 86 championship points, handing Au and his team the ALMS Driver and Team GT Championship titles, and the coveted 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans invitation.
Au now turns his focus to prepare for the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans this June, in addition to his program in GT World Challenge Europe.