DSC headed back to the Shanghai International Circuit on Wednesday after two days in the city for Asian Le Mans Series set up day.

The paddock ahead of this weekend’s action is almost ready to go, with the entire field of 27 cars now trackside and being worked on in the garages.

The last cars to arrive were Jackie Chan DC Racing’s ORECA 05 Nissan and one of its two Ligier JS P3s, plus the Car Guy Ferrari. All though were safely garaged by the time we arrived on Thursday morning, the Car Guy 488 sporting red livery here; the yellow colour scheme unveiled with the announcement of the effort will feature from Fuji.

Pit lane is particularly busy this weekend, as the Asian Le Mans Series is racing alongside the Chinese Touring Car Championship, which features a staggering field of over 40 cars in multiple classes and factory teams aplenty.

Within the field is a trio of factory Ford Focuses, which look the part, factory Kia’s, a set of Trumpchis, and an armada of BAICs amongst others.

There’s some familiar names in the series too, with Rob Huff racing with Volkswagen, doing double duty this weekend, racing with TSRT Racing in the Asian Le Mans Series. Alex Fontana and Adam Morgan too are set to compete in factory cars.

Plenty of the Asian Le Mans Series cars have their full liveries applied already, some of them looking particularly good.

TF Sport’s Aston Martin is sporting Red River Sport colours for Johnny Mowlem and his clients Ivor Dunbar and Bonamy Grimes. Ivor though won’t be making the trip to China, he has a pressing domestic commitment but will join the team for the remaining rounds.

All four of United’s Ligiers too, look spotless in the team’s expansive garage. Interestingly this is the first time that the team has campaigned the Ligier JS P2, their LMP2 programmes started with the newer JS P217.

The TRST Audis are also ready to go, the team’s pair of R8s fully liveried up for the season and the addition of 2012 WTCC Drivers World Champion Rob Huff and 2017 Le Mans GTE Am class winner Dries Vanthoor adding real punch to the effort.

Weather on Wednesday was pretty poor, with rain most of the afternoon, though thankfully the weather is supposed to improve substantially for the remainder of the weekend, Thursday greeting the grid with bright sunshine, but still very chilly ahead of the afternoon’s test session.