SRO has released an updated entry list for next week’s 50th running of the Suzuka 1000km, which now features the addition of a second late entry to bring the total car count to 30.
The final addition to this year’s field comes courtesy of GT World Challenge Asia regulars Harmony Racing, who’ve entered the #72 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo in the Bronze class.
A trio of Harmony’s full-time GT World Asia competitors – Song Jiajun, Liu Kaishun, and Brendon Leitch – will all make their Suzuka summer endurance race debuts for the Chinese team. Harmony’s Ferrari qualified a sensational sixth last year, only to fall to 22nd and seventh in the Bronze cup category.
The #72 Ferrari joins the other late entry, the #81 Team Daishin Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, in the Bronze class which now sits at 14 cars.
Another change to note is at Maezawa Racing, where Ferrari official GT driver Alessio Rovera has been called upon to drive the #555 Maezawa Racing 296 GT3 Evo alongside Yusaku Maezawa and Naoki Yokomizo.
Rovera replaces his Ferrari factory counterpart Thomas Neubauer, who was injured in a recent training accident and suffered a complex fracture in his left collarbone. The Frenchman had been set to return to Maezawa Racing for Suzuka as far back as March when Ferrari announced its official GT drivers’ endurance racing programmes.
This will be Rovera’s first Suzuka 1000km; the Italian has become perhaps the leading Ferrari works GT3 driver in recent years, winning championships in the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series, and GT World Challenge Europe along with his class victories in the 24-hour races at Le Mans and Spa.
Like Harmony Racing, Maezawa Racing aims to bounce back after a difficult first outing in the Suzuka summer endurance race.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group
