GT World Challenge Asia has released its 30-car entry list for the upcoming round at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand, taking place on 31 May/1 June.
Notable changes to the entry list for the third round of the championship include the return of two Porsche Contracted factory drivers to the series, Bastian Buus and Patrick Pilet.
Buus will rejoin the #4 Origine Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R in Pro-Am, with Alessio Picariello unavailable due to a clash with the GT World Europe 3 Hours of Monza. That same clash of dates has led Porsche veteran Pilet back into the #911 Absolute Racing Porsche, taking Harry King’s place.
Absolute Corse, meanwhile, has a brand-new line-up for its #29 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO: Local Bronze driver Henk Kiks, a full-timer in the Thailand Super Series, and Loris Spinelli, who’d recently starred in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class for fellow Lamborghini customer Forte Racing.
Elias Seppänen, a two-time ADAC GT Masters Champion, will jump into the #55 Winhere Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 for the first time in place of Lorenzo Patrese. And standout Japanese Bronze, Hiromasa “Hirobon” Kitano, returns to Team 5Zigen and the #500 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 for the first time this season.
The #18 Porsche Center Okazaki GT3 R and #44 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO will not be at Thailand, nor will the #98 Absolute Corse Ferrari that made spot starts in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Origine Motorsport’s Bob Yuan Bo and Leo Ye Hongli lead the overall Drivers’ Championship by nine points over Phantom Global Racing’s Anthony Liu Xu and Dorian Boccolacci. Only a further ten points down is Team KRC’s Tony Ruan Cunfan and Maxime Oosten, the leaders in the Silver-Am class standings.
James Yu Kuai and Franky Cheng Congfu lead the Silver Cup standings for Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom, while Garage 75’s David Tjiptobiantoro and Christian Colombo lead the Am Cup table after four races.
Feature image © SRO Motorsports Group
