GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS starts this weekend with two races at Sepang Circuit, and a 23-car entry list that was revealed on Friday.
Here’s some other stories of note as the new season approaches.
Pit stop success penalties revised in Silver Cup
GT World Asia’s pit stop success penalties remain in effect for 2026 – the top three finishers in Pro-Am, Silver-Am, and Am must stay in the pits for an additional 15, 10, and 5 seconds respectively at the next race.
This also applies in the Silver class, but the success penalties for the top three Silver/Silver driver combinations have been lengthened to 26, 21, and 16 seconds, respectively.
All-992.2 fleet for Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific
Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific has high hopes going into 2026, fielding nearly one-third of the cars in Sepang, and coming off of three consecutive GT3 Teams’ Championships via leading customer team Origine Motorsport.
“We’re looking forward to returning to GT World Challenge Asia with eight entries as we aim to defend our drivers’ and teams’ titles,” said PMAP Managing Director, Alexandre Gibot. “An evolution in the sporting regulations will make the title defence a challenge, but we have confidence in our entries and we’re up for the fight.
“It’s an important year for us as we see the introduction of the 2026 Porsche 911 GT3 R for the first time in the Asia-Pacific region. We have proven with our customers in previous seasons that we can fight at the front and our ambitions remain the same heading into this campaign, even though we expect strong competition. With the championship travelling to Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Japan, Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific will be there throughout providing comprehensive trackside support to ensure our customers are given the best possible chance to fight for victories.”
Within PMAP’s contingent there are some familiar and new combinations, like Lu Wei’s purple #4 car, shared with Alessio Picariello and Laurin Heinrich – who finally has a fortified calendar with the addition of this programme, a Nürburgring 24H entry with Lionspeed GP, and his European Le Mans Series campaign with High Class Racing.
To offset the departure of reigning series champions Bob Yuan and Leo Ye Hongli, as well as Li Kerong/Anders Fjordbach moving on to IGTC, a new Am entry from Origine features reigning Shanghai 8H overall winner Liu Hangcheng (who drove for Harmony Racing in last year’s GT World Asia series) and Wang Zhongwei (formerly of Absolute Racing).
Phantom Global Racing is down to just one car but keeps the #37 of Anthony Liu Xu and Dorian Boccolacci, while Porsche Center Okazaki retains its core line-ups of Hiroaki Nagai/Kazuto Kotaka in the #18 and Kiyoshi Uchiyama/Tsubasa Kondo in the #25. Kotaka will have to miss Mandalika due to his commitments in SUPER GT that same weekend, so he’ll give way to former Toyota GT500 factory driver Yuichi Nakayama for the Indonesian round.
Absolute Racing has new line-ups in both of its Porsches: Bastian Buus moves over from Origine, and Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak returns to the series, bringing a vintage-inspired FAT International livery with him to the #918 car. Meanwhile, Huang Ruohan moves over from the Absolute Corse Lamborghini into the new-look #911 Porsche together with newly-promoted Porsche contracted driver Alessandro Ghiretti, the reigning Porsche Supercup champion.
And maybe the biggest surprise of them all comes in the form of AMAC Motorsport entering a current-spec GT3 R, after running older-generation Porsches as far back as the 2019 Suzuka 10 Hours and ever since the return of GT World Asia in 2022.
“The whole team at AMAC Motorsport is looking forward to working with the current spec Porsche 911 GT3 R for our sixth GT World Challenge Asia season,” said owner/driver Andrew Macpherson. “Having the current spec car will give us the best possible opportunity to have consistent success in the Am class. I’m happy to be back with Ben [Porter] in our new car with our stunning new special livery for 2026. We’re aiming high this year!”
BMW Team Studie unveils new Bleach-themed livery, Suzuka 1000km entry
Earlier this week, BMW M Team Studie unveiled its new livery for the 2026 season. The new black, white, and orange livery is inspired by Tite Kubo’s anime and manga series Bleach and its main protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki.
It first appeared in Epic Games titles such as Rocket League and Fortnite late last year, and with Epic Games’ support, the Bleach car will now run in the real-world GT World Challenge Asia, driven by Tomohide Yamaguchi and 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Seiji Ara.
This year, Studie will receive support from Schubert Motorsport – and will also enter the 50th Suzuka 1000km on 13 September. This marks the team’s first 1000km entry since 2017, the last year of the race as a SUPER GT championship round.
“For Team Studie, it is an honour to bring this extraordinary project onto the racetrack,” said Studie owner Yasuaki ‘Bob’ Suzuki. “Working together with BMW M Motorsport and Bleach on such a unique concept is something very special. The design is visually striking and instantly recognisable, and we are proud to represent this collaboration in GT World Challenge Asia and in the IGTC.”
Of course, this is not BMW Team Studie’s first collaboration with anime culture. As many SUPER GT fans will be aware, Studie introduced the first Vocaloid/Hatsune Miku GT300 car to the series in collaboration with what is now Goodsmile Racing back in 2008, a partnership that culminated with a GT300 title in 2011.
Sepang live streams
Qualifying and both races will air live on the SRO GT World YouTube channel, with solo commentary from Ben Constanduros.
Images © SRO, Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific, BMW
