GT World Challenge Asia visited Okayama International Circuit this past weekend for the penultimate round of the 2024 season, a weekend that saw two entertaining races in different conditions.
Qualifying for both races was held on Saturday morning under bright, sunny skies. For Race 1, it was an all-Audi front row, headed by the silver and yellow Absolute Racing #41 of James Yu Kuai, ahead of the FAW Audi Sport Asia #36 of Franky Cheng Congfu. Lu Wei qualified fourth in the purple #4 Origine Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R, five places ahead of his main championship rival Anthony Liu Xu in the #1 Absolute Racing Porsche.
The second stage of qualifying was very competitive – with the provisional pole changing hands nine times during the 15-minute session. Yet ultimately the pole went to reigning Porsche Supercup Champion, Bastian Buus, who’d been picked to accompany Lu Wei in the #4 Origine Porsche. Buus won the pole by less than a tenth from series newcomer João Paulo de Oliveira in the #30 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. Ralf Aron, Edoardo Liberati, Dorian Boccolacci, and Luca Stolz rounded out the top six – all covered by less than three-tenths.
That afternoon, 31 cars lined up to take the green flag for Race 1.
The two Audis of Yu and Cheng led the first green flag lap, but the #30 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes couldn’t have much of a worse start: Qi Cao ran wide through turn one, then got hit by the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Satoshi Hoshino later in the lap. Both cars retired with damage before Oliveira or Tomonobu Fujii could jump in the cockpit.
A lap later, a battle between the #87 Origine Porsche of Yuan Bo and the #500 Team 5Zigen Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Hiromasa ‘Hirobon’ Kitano ended with Hirobon getting pushed off into the gravel at Revolver Corner, dropping him out of the top ten.
Meanwhile, race leader Yu began pulling away from Cheng, building a seven-second lead by the time the ten-minute pit window opened. 30 minutes was the perfect mark for Yu to give the car over to co-driver Akash Neil Nandy, who held his lead over the #36 of Adderly Fong.
Fong would soon have company in the form of a four-car convoy – headed by the #87 Origine Porsche of Leo Ye Hongli, with the #40 Absolute Racing Audi of Markus Winkelhock, the #888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes of Luca Stolz, and the #4 Origine Porsche of Bastian Buus right behind him. Ye passed Fong for second place up the inside of the Hairpin Corner, and one by one, Winkelhock, Stolz, Buus – and the #6 VSR Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Edoardo Liberati – would get by Fong.
In the closing minutes, Ye began closing in on Nandy, getting within a second of the leader when Setiawan Santoso’s stranded #8 EBM Aston Martin brought out a Full Course Yellow with just over eight minutes left.
Green flag racing resumed with five minutes to go. Nandy and Ye continued to run tail-to-nose, and as Nandy defended his lead, the quartet of Winkelhock, Stolz, Buus, and Liberati all began closing in as well! Ye had to try and defend and attack – and did well to hold off the four European aces.
Nandy and Yu won Race 1 – their first overall win of the season in the #41 Absolute Audi – ahead of the #87 Origine Porsche of Yuan and Ye, with the #40 Absolute Audi of Winkelhock and Huang Ruo Han completing the podium.
Stolz and Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim were fourth in the #888 Mercedes, the #4 Origine Porsche of Lu and Buus was fifth, and the #6 VSR Lamborghini of Liberati and Bian Ye in sixth. After an hour and 38 laps of racing, just 1.840 seconds covered the top six cars!
The #36 FAW Audi of Cheng/Fong consolidated seventh place, followed by the #1 Absolute Porsche of Liu and Alessio Picariello. Rounding out the overall top ten was the #18 Porsche Center Okazaki 911 (Hiroaki Nagai/Yuta Kamimura), and the #13 Phantom Global Racing Porsche of Boccolacci and Chris Chia (Xie An).
Am class honours went to the #75 Garage 75 Ferrari 296 GT3 (David Tjiptobiantoro/Christian Colombo) in 20th overall; it was the team’s fifth class win of the season.
At the end of Saturday’s race, Origine Motorsport’s two crews moved into first and second in the championship: Lu, five points ahead of Yuan/Ye, with Liu/Picariello now trailing by seven points.
The clear skies of yesterday’s race receded behind the clouds for Race 2. Light rain began to fall just as Buus and JP Oliveira were leading the field around to take the green flag.
But Liberati pounced on a slow start for the front row to cut between Oliveira and Buus and take the lead going into turn one. The field went six-wide, and Oliveira got hit from behind by Stolz and spun off into the gravel before continuing.
And then the rain got heavier, especially down at turn one. Fabian Schiller spun the #88 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes around in front of Picariello, but soon after Picariello dodged that bullet, he spun out in the same spot and dropped out of seventh place!
The pro drivers did their best to manage the wet conditions but just before the 15-minute mark, Liberati came in from the lead to pit for wet tyres. Others eventually followed Liberati’s lead. One brave soul who attempted to run the opening stint on slicks was Hideto Yasuoka in the #14 GTO Racing Porsche, trying to at least get to the mid-race pit window. He’d take the lead on track with this strategy, but with Liberati lapping about eight seconds quicker per lap on the wet tyres, a change for the lead became inevitable.
Once Yasuoka finally came to the pits, Liberati held a four-second lead over Stolz, meanwhile Buus was trying to fight off the #13 Phantom Global Porsche of Boccolacci, and the #22 Climax Racing Mercedes of Ralf Aron for third position. Boccolacci was dialed in and found his way past Buus for third, just before the leaders had to come into the pits for driver changes.
Suddenly the lead fight turned to Bian Ye versus Prince Ibrahim as the #6 Lamborghini and #888 Mercedes exited the pits. However, Bian was able to pull away by a few tenths at a time to build a comfortable lead.
It was enough for Bian to take the green #6 VSR Lamborghini to the chequered flag, the first GT World Challenge Asia overall victory for Lamborghini since 2018 – when Martin Kodric and Dennis Lind won the season finale at Ningbo Speedpark to clinch the series title!
Ibrahim and Stolz would finish second, while the #13 of Chia and Boccolacci took third place by two-tenths of a second over the #4 of Lu and Buus.
The #36 FAW Audi of Cheng and Fong was fifth, ahead of the #93 AAS Phantom Global Porsche (Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak/Joel Eriksson) in sixth, then the #22 Climax Racing Mercedes of Aron and Wang Zhongwei, and the #40 Audi of Huang and Winkelhock.
In ninth place – and first in the Silver-Am class for the first time – was the #44 Vollgas Motorsports Porsche of Han Min-Gwan and Kim Jae-Hyun, taking the chequered flag just ahead of the #87 Origine Porsche of Yuan and Ye in tenth place – and second in Silver-Am.
Origine Motorsport’s results put them 90 points ahead of Absolute Racing, enough for the Chinese team to clinch its second GT World Challenge Asia Teams’ Championship in a row – and the first since the team formerly known as R&B Racing adopted its new name in the off-season.
Yuan Bo and Leo Ye Hongli also pulled 51 points ahead in the Silver-Am Drivers’ Championship, enough for the two drivers of the #87 car to clinch the title – their first in SRO Asia competition. Yuan previously won the 2015 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Pro-Am title with Liberati as his co-driver; Ye’s high water mark until now was winning the 2020 Macau GT Cup.
Am class victory in Race 2 went to the #66 Climax Racing Mercedes of Hu Yuqi and Bihuang Zhou – a 1-2 finish for Climax Racing with the #52 (Li Lichao/Liu Hangcheng) in second.
Heading into the 2024 season finale at Shanghai International Circuit, seven crews are still mathematically eligible to win the Overall Drivers’ Championship – but now, Lu Wei has a comfortable 16-point lead over his team-mates Yuan and Ye, and a 19-point lead over defending champion Liu and Picariello. Lu also leads Liu/Picariello by 11 points in the Pro-Am standings.
Cheng/Fong, Ibrahim, Bian/Liberati, and Huang/Winkelhock are all within the requisite 50 points needed to stay alive in the Overall championship – but are long-shots to win it even if one of them were to have a perfect weekend.
However, Cheng and Fong are leading the Silver class standings by ten points over Absolute Racing’s Eshan Pieris and Tanart Sathienthirakul.
As for the Am title, Tjiptobiantoro has a commanding 35-point lead over AMAC Motorsports’ Andrew MacPherson and William Ben Porter, meaning the Australian duo needs some extra help if they’re to have any chance at an upset.
The final round at Shanghai is on 13-15 September.
Images © SRO Motorsports Asia
