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Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Alessandro Ghiretti says he hoping to repay the faith shown in him by Porsche as he tackles the weekend’s Suzuka 1000km for the first time as part of a Pro lineup. The French Porsche-contracted driver is sharing the Bosch-liveried No. 7 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo with Ayhancan Guven and Dorian Boccolacci in what marks his first time fighting for outright honors in a marquee GT3 event. It comes amid twin campaigns in Asia for Ghiretti, who is participating in GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS as well as the Thailand Super Series, both for Absolute. Speaking after setting the fourth-fastest time in pre-qualifying on Saturday morning , Ghiretti said his aim is to put together a clean weekend, learn from his co-drivers and prove that he is deserving of more such opportunities in big races. “I want to thank Porsche and Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific for believing in me, because I know this is a really important event for th...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Kenny Habul said he’s been grateful of the paddock support that’s rallied around his 75 Express squad, admitting they’re making a “mis-mash’ of stuff work and remains bullish on their chances of fighting for an overall podium finish in the Suzuka 1000km. The Munich-based team arrived in Japan without its container of equipment, which was shipped out in mid-June but got washed up in the South China Sea after consecutive typhoons. While its Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was air-freighted to Suzuka, the team has had to lean on the support of local teams, including SUPER GT outfits Goodsmile Racing and Arnage Racing, among other locals, for equipment ranging from a fuel rigs to spare wheels. Fellow Mercedes-AMG squad Craft-Bamboo Racing has also assisted by letting the team use its setup pad in their garage. “We’re not used to having to borrow stuff,” Habul told Sportscar365. “We all have really nice stuff,...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Katsumasa Chiyo put the No. 500 Team 5ZIGEN Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 on top in Pre-Qualifying, in what marked the first day-time dry running of the weekend ahead of tomorrow’s Suzuka 1000km. The Nissan factory driver was the only driver to dip below the two-minute barrier, having reeled off a 1:59.908 lap time to edge out the No. 555 Maezawa Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo for Alessio Rovera by 0.202 seconds. Rovera was one of a number of cars to make improvements in the the closing moments of the 90-minute session. Seita Nonaka put the No. 45 PONOS Racing Ferrari third on the time charts, ahead of the No. 7 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo in fourth, while Dennis Olsen made a late-session splurge to fifth quickest in the debuting No. 64 Miedecke Motorsport By Team MPC Ford Mustang GT3 EVO. The No. 9 Bingo Racing with LM Corsa Porsche of Reimei Itou was sixth, the second quickest Bronze Cup entry to the class-leading Maezawa entry, with the Ryo...

Photo: Ethan Ring/AO Racing Laurin Heinrich said he’s “hyped” to be reunited with Rexy, as the Porsche factory star chases his first-ever Intercontinental GT Challenge victory in this weekend’s Suzuka 1000km. Heinrich, who drove with AO Racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for two seasons, winning the 2024 GTD Pro title, has spent this year in Porsche 963 machinery, split between the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport operation and customer JDC-Miller Motorsports squad in top-class competition. Before embarking on the final two GTP races of the season in his championship hunt, Heinrich is back in a Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo sporting ‘Bushi Rex’ a samurai-themed dinosaur character, the ancestor of AO’s main character Rexy. The 24-year-old German is sharing the Absolute Racing-run entry with fellow Porsche drivers Alessio Picariello and Julien Andlauer, marking AO’s foray into IGTC combination. “It feels amazing to ...

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI Anthony McIntosh said his entry in this weekend’s Suzuka 1000km is aimed to get more track experience ahead of a full season Intercontinental GT Challenge program in the future. The FIA Bronze-rated American driver has brought his FIA World Endurance Championship co-drivers Dan Harper and Parker Thompson to the fourth round of the IGTC season in a Bronze class Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO. It marks a one-off appearance in the globe-trotting GT3 series this year, although McIntosh took part in last year’s revival of the race, finishing 18th overall and second in the Pro-Am class in a GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. “For me, Suzuka was one of those tracks where I needed to spend some more time at and just really learn,” McIntosh told Sportscar365. “Last year when I went there, I didn’t really get a lot of seat time. It was raining and I had to learn the track at night, so that was kind of wild. “I never really got th...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Fred Vervisch believes the biggest challenge for the Ford Mustang GT3 EVO’s Suzuka debut will be putting all of the “new” pieces in place, although he and co-drivers Chris Mies and Dennis Olsen are confident in the experience they’re bringing to the program. The Ford Racing factory trio, who won the 2025 Rolex 24 at Daytona together in the GTD Pro class, will reunite for this weekend’s Suzuka 1000km with Miedecke Motorsport By Team MPC, which is set for its first race outing with the Multimatic-built car. With the Melbourne-based outfit not able to test with the car, which was shipped directly to Japan and built up in the paddock, there will be a number of new elements to overcome according to Vervisch. “It’s a new team, it’s a new [chassis]. Everything we’re bringing there, we didn’t see each other, so there’s no real preparation like you’d like to have,” he told Sportsc...