Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific customers Absolute Racing and Panther/AAS Motorsport head to the Shanghai finale of the 2019 Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia championship in contention for the drivers’ title.
Racing on the doorstep of Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific’s headquarters at the Shanghai International Circuit, the overall, Silver and Pro-Am titles remain up for grabs amongst the Porsche 911 GT3 R competitors.
Having already secured the teams’ title in their first year with Porsche, Absolute Racing could add more glory to their season with the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia duo of Tanart Sathienthirakul and Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Young Professional Philip Hamprecht in the #911 car.
They head into the weekend second in the overall standings, just 12 points back, as well as in the Silver classification by eight points, making it all to play for with two races remaining.
Leo Ye Hongli and Yuan Bo, who celebrates his 32nd birthday on Tuesday, return in the sister #912 Porsche. As podium finishers last time out in Seoul, they aim for another strong result.
Going for the Pro-Am title is Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak, with the help of his Panther/AAS Motorsport team-mate Alexandre Imperatori. The former leads by 33 points having taken two overall wins this year, most recently at the previous round in Yeongam, and four in class on board the #918 machine.
Imperatori is joint second in the standings after missing the Suzuka round. He has fond memories of the Shanghai circuit with multiple victories in Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, including his 2012 championship-winning year.
Li Chao returns to the wheel of the #910 JRM Porsche 911 GT3 R for his home race with triple Carrera Cup Asia champion Chris van der Drift, who aims for a fifth Pro-Am podium after making it onto the overall rostrum in South Korea.
Japanese squad ARN Racing also makes a comeback after missing the previous round. 2017 Super Taikyu champion Hiroaki Nagai and 2019 Porsche Japan Junior Yuta Kamimura once again are at the helm of the #8 Porsche and will look to add to their tally of two Pro-Am victories in 2019.
Track action begins on Thursday with free practice at 13:40 (GMT+8), with a second one-hour session taking place at 09:00 on Friday. Qualifying will begin at 12:05 with race one at 16:15. The final race of the 2019 season will be underway on Saturday at 11:55.
Press release Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific
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