GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS and SRO Japan Cup will both be in action this coming weekend, 28–30 August, for the second SRO GT PowerTour event of the season at Okayama International Circuit.
Headlining the event is GT World Challenge Asia’s seventh and eighth races of 2026, the last in Japan before the series ventures to China for the Beijing Street Race on 3/4 October, and the season finale at Shanghai International Circuit on 31 October/1 November.
24 cars have entered in GT World Asia, with some notable additions to the field.
Out of the Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific (PMAP) stable, EBM (Earl Bamber Motorsport) returns to action with the latest Porsche 911 GT3 R. Adrian D’Silva in his #61 Porsche is joined by PMAP Selected Driver Enzo Trulli, the son of Monaco Grand Prix winner and 15-year F1 veteran Jarno.
Other shakeups within select Porsche teams include reigning DTM Champion, Ayhancan Güven, making his series debut in the #37 Phantom Global Racing 911 alongside Anthony Liu Xu. Championship-leading squad Absolute Racing’s second Porsche, the #918, is also in with a new line-up featuring longtime Porsche factory driver Klaus Bachler and Japanese Bronze driver Kazuki Ota, who more recently drove a CarGuy Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 in the Japan Cup.
For the first time this year, Silver Cup points leader Akash Nandy is expected to have a co-driver in the #29 Absolute Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, as Thai driver Sandy Stuvik returns to driving duties in GT World Asia.
Ruan Cunfan’s rotating cast of BMW M factory specialists will see him reunited with American driver Neil Verhagen; the current IMSA GTD Pro championship leader will drive the Pro-Am #89 BMW M4 GT3 EVO.
And Garage 75 will have an all-new, all-Japanese Am lineup of two Ferrari Challenge Japan drivers known as “Cold Max” and “Yamatatsu”. The latter won this year’s Ferrari Challenge Japan Trofeo Pirelli championship, and both have also raced in Super Taikyu this season.
Nissan works driver Atsushi Miyake leads the SRO GT Academy standings in the #500 Team 5Zigen Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, despite missing a round due to his SUPER GT commitments. The winning GT Academy driver will earn an invitation to race in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, but only 12 points cover the top five eligible drivers – Miyake, James Yu Kuai, Elias Seppänen, Maxime Oosten, and Liu Kaishun.
Over in Japan Cup, the entry list is made up of 15 cars, including 12 GT3s.
Returning entries include Maezawa Racing, which missed the Fuji rounds due to Yusaku Maezawa’s business commitments, and RunUp Sports – whose SUPER GT GT300 team is coming off its best finish of the year.
In addition, K-tunes Racing’s #96 entry has now changed manufacturers for a third time this year, from the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R that was a failure to launch at Sugo, to the Lexus RC F GT3 used at Fuji, and now at Okayama, Kazunori Suenaga and Nirei Fukuzumi will drive a Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.
The only change in the three-car GT4 field is Akiland Racing’s return, with Masayoshi Oyama and Yuji Kunimoto driving the #71 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2.
But at the top of the GT3 standings, the top four teams are separated by only 12 points. Four runner-up finishes have put the #24 Max Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Yusaku Shibata and Yuya Motojima at the top of the table, but the #88 Miracolo Tokyo McLaren 720S GT3 (Tadao Uematsu/Kenta Yamashita), #9 Bingo Racing with LM corsa Porsche (Shinji Takei/Ukyo Sasahara), and #1 Hitotsuyama with Cornes Racing (Akihiro Tsuzuki/Shintaro Kawabata) are all still very much in the hunt for the title.
Both GT World Asia and Japan Cup races will air live on the SRO GT World YouTube channel, with races on Saturday and Sunday.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group
