• Absolute’s Porsche duo 20 points clear of chasing pack
• Asia’s series joins Japan Cup on packed Fuji bill

GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS heads to the foothills of Mount Fuji this weekend for Rounds 5 and 6 of the continental series.

The campaign resumes a little more than two months after the previous event at Mandalika where Huang Ruohan and Alessandro Ghiretti (Absolute Racing) extended their overall lead to a commanding 20 points. Akash Nandy (Absolute Racing) edged further clear in the Silver class standings, Dean Chen and Alex Jiatong (Craft-Bamboo) twice triumphed in Silver-Am and also top the China Cup classification, and Liu Hangcheng and Wang Zhongwei (Origine) established themselves as the Am duo to beat.

Elsewhere, and with three outright wins from four, Porsche appears to be Asia’s dominant manufacturer this year. That bodes well for its pursuit of Mercedes-AMG in the global GT World Challenge where just 15 points separate the German manufacturers following the most recent round at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

SRO’s domestic multi-class series, Japan Cup, is also back in action following its season opener at Sugo in mid-May. And with just two of this year’s eight hour-long races complete it’s unsurprising the championship battle should remain tight: two points cover the top three crews, with Ukyo Sasahara and Shinji Takei leading the way.

Porsche Sprint Challenge Japan, Road Star Cup and Road Star Party Race add further variety to the SRO GT Powertour event, which will also include a paddock display featuring some of the world’s rarest hypercars and a fan pitwalk on both Saturday and Sunday.

SRO’s four 60-minute races, split equally between GT World Asia and Japan Cup, take place on Saturday and Sunday. All, as well as qualifying, are live with English and Japanese commentary on the GT World YouTube channel and official app.