Next week, GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS opens its season with a pair of 60-minute sprint races at Petronas Sepang International Circuit. The provisional entry list for Saturday and Sunday’s races features 23 cars, a bit of a drop from the capacity grids that the series has enjoyed recently, but one that still contains quality entries.
This is even after two notable entries have ‘graduated’ from the championship. After winning back-to-back GT World Asia Overall drivers’ championships, the Chinese duo of Bob Yuan and Leo Ye Hongli won’t be going for a three-peat with Origine Motorsport. Also moving on to other adventures is Johor Motorsport Racing, which has shifted its focus towards the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
That means a new champion is set to be crowned in the Overall and Pro-Am championship. While the drivers have changed, Origine may still be the “team to beat” from an eight-car Porsche customer contingent, debuting the new 911 GT3 R 992.2 “Evo” in the Pan-Asian series.
Lu Wei returns in the #4 Origine Porsche this year, alongside a rotating combination of Porsche Works driver Laurin Heinrich and factory contracted driver Alessio Picariello. Picariello will race at Sepang next week, while Origine adds a new Am class entry, the pleasantly pink, white, and blue #22 of Liu Hang Cheng and Wang Zhong Wei.
After finishing fourth in last year’s standings, 2023 series champion Anthony Liu Xu and Dorian Boccolacci return to drive the #37 Phantom Global Racing Porsche. Absolute Racing has two strong Pro-Am Porsches in the field: The #911 of Huang Ruo Han and reigning Porsche Supercup champion Alessandro Ghiretti, and the #918 of Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak and Bastian Buus.
Japanese team Porsche Center Okazaki returns with two cars, the #18 of Hiroaki Nagai and former Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge prospect Kazuto Kotaka, plus the #25 of Kiyoshi Uchiyama and multi-time Porsche Carrera Cup Japan champ Tsubasa Kondo (Silver-Am). Australian underdog AMAC Motorsport returns for another bid at the Am class championship, and for the first time, it will race the 992-generation Porsche (a former 2 Seas Motorsports car) but Andrew Macpherson and Ben Porter stick together as its drivers.
Ferrari’s new 296 GT3 Evo also makes its GT World Asia debut, and the Italian marque is represented by five cars – including three from Harmony Racing. Andy Deng Yi and Liu Kaishun will race for Silver class honours in the #96 Ferrari, Song Jiajun and Brendon Leitch compete in Pro-Am in the new-look #72, while Sun “JZ” Jingzu and Adderly Fong also join the team in the #13 Silver-Am class entry. Andy Tan and Thierry Vermeulen drive Absolute Corse’s #98 Ferrari, another strong competitor in Pro-Am.
Meanwhile, Garage 75 will aim for its third straight Am championship, retaining the combination of David Tjiptobiantoro and Christian Colombo in the #75 Ferrari.
Coming off a strong performance at the Bathurst 12 Hour, Team KRC expands to a two-car team for 2026. Maxime Oosten returns to defend his Silver-Am title that he won alongside Tony Ruan Cunfan last year, but now Oosten will be paired with Brian Lee in the #10 GTO with KRC BMW. As for Ruan, his co-driver this weekend in the #89 car is BMW M works driver Neil Verhagen.
Plus with BMW M Team Studie returns to the series after forgoing the Okayama round, retaining Tomohide Yamaguchi and Le Mans winner Seiji Ara in the #5 BMW.
Mercedes-AMG’s attack consists of two cars from Climax Racing and one from Craft-Bamboo Racing. Climax will challenge for the Silver-Am class with Li Lichao and Elias Seppanen in the #27 AMG GT3 EVO, and for Am, the #8 of Mike Zhou Bihuang and Setiawan Santoso.
Craft-Bamboo Racing has confirmed Super Taikyu Series race winner Dean Chen in the #77 car alongside Alex Liang Jiatong, while a proposed second entry is still on hold after an accident at Bathurst.
Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom keeps the flame alive for the still-effective Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II in GT World Asia, entering two cars. Reigning Silver class champions Franky Cheng Congfu and James Yu Kuai are looking for back-to-back cup titles and potentially an overall title in the #15 Audi. The new-look #16 Audi features Andrés Pato (who may, or may not, be Andrew Haryanto) and Jaxon Evans teaming up for the first time.
Along with its two Porsches and one Ferrari, Absolute Racing also fields the only Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 in Sepang. In the car’s final season of front-line competition, the #29 Absolute Lambo will have one driver, Malaysian Akash Neil Nandy – competing for the Silver class.
And Team 5Zigen is back, with the only Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in GT World Asia, and one of the few remaining outside of SUPER GT. Nissan GT500 factory driver Atsushi Miyake forms a new partnership with past GT300 champion Takayuki Aoki in the #500 Nissan for Sepang.
GT World Challenge Asia will also participate in the SRO GT Academy, a competition for Silver-rated drivers under 30 to demonstrate their skills across a full season with the aim of a fully-funded ride at the 2027 24 Hours of Spa up for grabs.
Maxime Oosten (#10 GTO with KRC), James Yu Kuai (#15 Audi Sport Phantom), Elias Seppanen (#27 Climax Racing), Akash Nandy (#29 Absolute Racing), Deng Yi, Liu Kaishun (#96 Winhere Harmony Racing), and Atsushi Miyake (#500 Team 5Zigen) are all eligible for the prize.
Qualifying for both races takes place on the morning of Saturday 4 April, followed by Race 1 that afternoon, and Race 2 on Sunday 5 April – all of it will be shown live on the SRO GT World YouTube channel.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group
