Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific’s 13 entries are heading to Japan to compete at Fuji International Speedway, as Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS and Fanatec Japan Cup race on the same bill for the first time in 2024.
Reigning teams’ champions Origine Motorsport picked up their second overall victory of the season in Buriram, winning Race 2 with Lu Wei and Patrick Pilet in the #4 car. The duo are back for more this weekend, with Wei returning to happy hunting ground, having secured a double podium at Fuji in 2023. Meanwhile, the sister #87 car of Yuan Bo and Leo Ye claimed a pair of top five finishes in Thailand, as the Chinese outfit maintain their spot at the top of the teams’ championship.
2023 series champion Anthony Liu and Porsche Driver Alessio Picariello will be hoping to push on from their positive showing last time out, after securing a podium in Race 2. Eshan Pieris and Tanart Sathienthirakul will team up again in the #911 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), following a solid Buriram weekend which saw them clinch a pair of sixth-placed finishes.
Phantom Global Racing welcome back Joel Eriksson, partnering 2019 Pro-Am champion Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak, while Jaxon Evans continues in the #13 car alongside Sun Jing Zu.
Hiroaki Nagai will be aiming for a return to the points and the Silver-Am podium in the #18 Porsche Center Okazaki car, with two-time Super GT (GT300) champion Kiyoto Fujinami joining him for his first appearance of the season. Tsubasa Kondo and Kiyoshi Uchiyama target continued improvement following a solid start to the season in the #25 machine. Both duos are racing on home soil for the first time this season as the championship enters its Japanese leg.
The second-year driver pairing of Brian Lee and Hideto Yasuoka will participate in the #14 Porsche for GTO Racing Team, as the squad also look forward to racing in their homeland again.
Vollgas Motorsports welcome the return of Kin Jae-hyun for Rounds 7 and 8 of the 2024 campaign, having missed out on the Buriram event through injury. He teams up again with fellow Korean Han Min-kwan as the duo aim for strong points in the Silver-Am category in their debut Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia season.
AMAC Motorsport’s Andrew Macpherson and Ben Porter maintained their 100% class podium rate with another positive event in Thailand. The two-time Am champions will be hoping to keep this strong start to the year going into Fuji aboard the #51 Porsche 911 GT3 R (991.2).
In the Japan Cup, Porsche will have two entries with Sunrise BLVD #82 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport, driven by Japanese duo Daiki Fujiwara and Yoshitomo Makino. The pair got their campaign off to a solid start earlier this month at Sportsland Sugo, clinching a class podium in the first event. Fuji will also see the debut of GAMA 83 Racing in the series, as they will be represented by sole driver Makoto Haga driving the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 991 in the Am class.
