19 Cars for Beijing Round as Hartog Returns

Photo: GT World Challenge Asia

This weekend’s penultimate round of the GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS season in Beijing has attracted 19 entries, as Loek Hartog makes his second appearance of the year to reinforce Origine Motorsport Porsche driver Lu Wei’s title bid.

Released last Sunday, the entry list features the smallest number of cars for any round of the series since its very first post-COVID 19 event at Sepang in 2022, with three fewer cars than the low-water mark for the year so far at Mandalika.

Compared to the previous round at Okayama International Circuit in August, three full-season cars have dropped off the grid: the BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Team Studie, which is set to shutter operations entirely, the Garage 75 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo and the No. 25 Porsche Center Okazaki Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

Additionally, EBM’s one-off Porsche for Okayama and the LM Corsa Ferrari that contested both Japanese rounds at Fuji and Okayama are absent.

The most significant driver change compared to Okayama is the addition of Porsche-contracted driver Hartog to the No. 11 Origine Motorsport entry in which championship leader Lu will be hoping to wrap up the title with a round to spare.

Lu has a lead of 22 points over both Phantom Global Racing’s Anthony Liu and Absolute Racing duo Alessandro Ghiretti and Huang Ruohan, and could be crowned champion ahead of the Shanghai season finale if he can extend that to 50 points.

Ironically, Hartog boosted the title chances of Liu earlier in the year when he joined him aboard the the No. 37 Porsche at Mandalika round and the pair scored a victory.

DTM champion Ayhancan Guven is making a second consecutive appearance alongside Liu with usual co-driver Dorian Boccolacci otherwise engaged on GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup duties at Barcelona on the same weekend.

Elsewhere, Absolute Racing’s No. 918 car has another revamped lineup for Beijing as Intercontinental GT Challenge Independent Cup champion Kerong Li becomes that car’s third different Bronze-rated driver of the year.

Li is joined in the car by Porsche-contracted Joel Sturm, who makes his GTWC debut.

Also set for his first series appearance is PONOS Racing SUPER GT regular Takuro Shinohara, who has been drafted in to the lineup for the No. 96 Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo alongside Liu Kaishun to replace Chen Weian.

Dean Chen meanwhile returns to the No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to partner Liang Jiatong for the first time since the Mandalika round.

Source: Sports Car 365