Team WRT was not on the first provisional entry list for the 49th edition of the Suzuka 1000km, but today, the Belgian superteam has confirmed that it will indeed return to defend its victory in Japan’s oldest endurance sports car race with two BMW M4 GT3 EVOs.
Kelvin van der Linde, who won the 2019 Suzuka Summer Endurance Race for Team WRT in an Audi R8 LMS GT3, will drive the #32 WRT BMW alongside 2018 race winner Raffaele Marciello, and defending Intercontinental GT Challenge Drivers’ Champion Charles Weerts.
Van der Linde and WRT won the last Suzuka Summer Endurance before the event went on a five-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Like van der Linde, Marciello won the 2018 Suzuka race with a different manufacturer (Mercedes-AMG) before joining BMW in 2024.
In the #31 WRT BMW, Augusto Farfus, the 2019 pole winner, will be joined by BMW Junior Team graduates Dan Harper and Max Hesse.
Farfus and van der Linde are currently separated in this year’s IGTC Drivers’ Championship by just two points; they started the IGTC campaign with shared victories in the Bathurst 12 Hour for WRT, and the Nürburgring 24 Hours for ROWE Racing. Farfus finished fifth in the Spa 24 Hours for ROWE, and van der Linde finished seventh for WRT – equating to fourth and fifth-place points in the IGTC standings among eligible manufacturers.
WRT’s fashionably late arrival brings BMW’s car count for the Suzuka 1000km to three, including the Team KRC entry, which will also feature BMW M works driver Neil Verhagen. BMW currently leads the IGTC Manufacturers’ Championship by 14 points over reigning champions Porsche.
Not counting the BMW-powered McLaren F1 GTRs that won in 1995 and 1996, the Bavarian brand’s only Suzuka 1000km overall win as a constructor came back in 1982 with a Group 5 BMW M1 – though the previous Z4 GT3 did take GT300 class honours in 2014, when the race was part of the Autobacs SUPER GT Series.
Images © Andrew ‘Skippy’ Hall / dailysportscar.com
