The photo you see is believed to be the largest gathering of dedicated GT cars for a race weekend in Asia – with 46 out of 49 cars lined up on the front stretch of Fuji Speedway for a group photo.
GT World Challenge Asia and SRO Japan Cup are racing together for the first time this year, under a new promotional banner known as “SRO GT PowerTour” – and these are the cars that will take part across either of the two series.
Earlier in the day, DSC’s RJ O’Connell took time to get a close-up look at some of the stand-out cars of the bunch.
Origine Motorsport has been successful so far this season in GT World Challenge Asia. The recently rechristened team, previously known as R&B Racing, won last year’s GT3 Teams’ Championship.
This year, Origine has won two out of four races overall with the #4 Porsche driven by Wei Lu, alongside Laurin Heinrich and Patrick Pilet.
Yuan Bo and Leo Ye Hongli lead the Silver-Am standings in their mint green #87 Origine Porsche.
The Audi brand is still very much active here in GT World Challenge Asia – here’s the #36 FAW Audi Sport Asia Racing Team R8 of Franky Cheng Congfu and Adderly Fong, which won the first race of the season at Sepang and also leads the Silver Class standings.
Defending GT World Challenge Asia champion Anthony Liu Xu took his number one plate to Absolute Racing this offseason and now drives the #1 Porsche alongside Alessio Picariello, the reigning European Le Mans Series GTE Champion.
Absolute Racing represents three different manufacturers this season – Porsche, Ferrari (as Absolute Corse), and Audi (as Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute).
Craft-Bamboo Racing’s SunnyRain #30 Mercedes, driven by Cao Qi and Maro Engel.
The second of the two Craft-Bamboo cars, the #88 J-Fly Racing machine of Jeffrey Lee and Jayden Ojeda – back from its appearance at the Super Taikyu Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours.
Triple Eight JMR returns to the site of its unusual Race 2 win at Fuji last year, hoping this time Abu Bakar Ibrahim and Luca Stolz will have a more conventional run to the chequered flag.
The car carries the hashtag #FightLikeJalil to benefit the Tunku Laksamana Johor Cancer Foundation – founded by the Johor royal family with the blessing of Almarhum Tunku Abdul Jalil and his family.
Close-up on the traditional Japanese artwork which now adorns the #13 Phantom Global Racing Porsche of Sun Jingzu and Jaxon Evans.
The reigning Japan Cup GT3 Pro-Am champions Porsche Center Okazaki and the bright red #18.
However, the driver line-up has changed somewhat with Yuta Kamimura stepping out, and two-time SUPER GT GT300 Champion Kiyoto Fujinami stepping in. The former Nissan works driver has raced other GT3 machines before, but it’ll be his first time in a 911.
Nissan is very much alive and flourishing with three GT-R NISMO GT3s in the field, one of which is the #500 Team 5Zigen (pronounced “go-jigen”) GT-R.
The newest addition is GTNET MotorSports’ #81 Daishin GT-R, normally a contender in Super Taikyu, and with a look that will be very familiar to SUPER GT fans of a certain vintage.
As it should be: Noboyuki Oyagi, the original founder of Team Daishin and 2001 GT300 Champion, is driving with his son Ryuichiro – who is a champion in the Vita Japan Series.
D’station Racing is here with its two new Aston Martin Vantage GT3s – the Japan Cup #47 in the back for Tatsuya Hoshino and Kenji Hama, the World Challenge #777 in the front for Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii.
Moving from Japan Cup to GTWC Asia this weekend is the Ami Suzuki/Nijiko Wakabayashi-owned ANR by VSR #563 Lamborghini, driven by Akira Mizutani and Yuki Nemoto.
The most eye-catching car in the field by far is the #9 Bingo Racing Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R, which won both Japan Cup races at Sugo last time out.
This is the same C7 GT3-R chassis built for Shinji Takei that first competed all the way back at the 2018 and 2019 Suzuka 10 Hours, the SUPER GT x DTM Dream Race GT300 Sprint Cup, and the same car that won Race 1 at Fuji last year, then crashed in Race 2, and was rebuilt after.
It’s uncertain if the Am-Am combination of Takei and Motoki Takami will be as competitive as the tandem of Takei and Ukyo Sasahara but this car will certainly be a fan-favourite among everyone watching – one of the last Callaway Corvette GT3s still in active service!
(SRO has yet to designate a class for this more compact version of the Bingo Corvette.)
Inside the garage of the Bingo team is Transformers artwork that also features some Autobots with liveries inspired by vintage racing cars – adding to the depth of the partnership between team and sponsor!
It’ll be hard to miss the two black and white K-tunes Racing cars, including the #96 Lexus RC F GT3 of Kazunori Suenaga and Morio Nitta.
These two cars and the #98 Ferrari 296 GT3 all have refreshed liveries, designed by Yosuke Aizawa of outdoor fashion label White Mountaineering.
JBR is a new racing team founded by D’station Racing’s Tomonobu Fujii as a separate project to support Bronze-rated gentlemen drivers to compete in Japan and abroad.
This is the first race for the JBR #64 McLaren 570S GT4 of Yasutaka Ando and Osamu Kondo, and JBR also plans to add a second Japan Cup entry later on, plus there are plans to enter the 24 Hours of Dubai next year.
There were two test sessions on Thursday, beginning in the morning with Japan Cup.
Yorikatsu Tsujiko, the racing game developer, led the session with a best lap of 1:39.628 in the #7 Comet Racing Ferrari, followed by Shinji Takei in the #9 Bingo Racing Corvette on a 1:40.407.
The fastest of the GT4 cars was the #39 Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia GR Supra, with a 1:47.519 set by Kazuhisa Urabe, making his first start of the season.
Urabe is a name that will become familiar very soon to Toyota fans. The 19-year-old became a Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge (TGR-DC) training driver this year, and he’s competing full-time in the FIA F4 Japanese Championship, Inter Proto Series, and also raced at the Fuji 24 Hours. His father, Haruhisa, is the founder & president of INGING Motorsport.
Jules Gounon has been away for the first two GT World Challenge Asia meetings – the recently-appointed Alpine Hypercar Team reserve driver has had to step in for an injured Ferdinand Habsburg at the 6 Hours of Imola and 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, and both events clashed with Sepang and Buriram.
But he got right back in the groove with the fastest time in the GTWC Asia test, at 1:38.539.
It was close inside the top three: Marco Mapelli was second in the #63 VSR Lamborghini, and Luca Stolz was third in the #888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes – all covered by just over a tenth. 20 cars were covered by just a second.
But next to Gounon’s car, the #52 Climax Racing Mercedes was under repairs after Li Lichao crashed during the test.
Li lost control on the transition from 100R Corner to Advan Corner and crashed into the barriers on the right side, damaging the front and rear of the #52 car.
Its participation for the rest of the weekend is uncertain, but understandably the car was in no shape to present itself for the group photo.
The other two absentees were Liu Lic Ka’s #3 Elegant Racing Team Mercedes – back for the first time since Sepang and only as a single-driver entrant – and the #16 ABSSA Motorsport Mercedes GT4 from Japan Cup.
Weather forecasts call for persistent rain tomorrow where both series are scheduled to run two practice sessions.
Select images © SRO Motorsports Group Asia; all others © RJ O’Connell / Dailysportscar.com
