2016 GT Asia Schedule Released

The schedule for the 2016 GT Asia Series has been released, featuring 12 races on six weekends, including a new event to the sixth season of the continent’s leading GT championship.

The season will begin at the Yeongam Circuit in South Korea in mid-May, before returning to Thailand for the second event on the calendar in mid-June at Buriram, a popular venue which was new to the series last year.

Just three weeks later teams will return to Okayama for the third time, with the popular Fuji circuit hosting the fourth event just two weeks later.

Then it’s on to Shanghai in early September for the first of two Chinese events, the second — and season finale — at the internationally classified Zhejiang Circuit, the all-new 3.2-kilometer Grade 2 FIA venue which is located just 180 kilometers southwest of Shanghai.

“We’re proud to reveal what is an exciting calendar for the 2016 season,” said Motorsport Asia CEO David Sonenscher.

“Unlike 2015, we will return purely to a sprint race format after introducing the Sepang 3-Hour last year. The event proved popular, but teams voted against the concept, preferring to compete across a series of 60-minute races as we have done in the past.

“We’re also returning to Buriram which was a very popular addition to the Series in 2015, and we will close out the season at the new Zhejiang Circuit in southern China.

“It’s fantastic that they have developed another international class circuit like Zhejiang in China, and a pleasure for GT Asia to be invited to be one of the first international categories to compete at the venue.”

Whilst the venues have confirmed, so too have a number of established GT Asia Series regulars, and there has also been a steady flow of interest from some of the leading GT3 teams in the world.

“We saw some big commitments in 2015 from teams with strong factory connections, and a steady stream of international drivers competing in the Series,” Sonenscher said.

“Already we’ve had contact from more teams within Asia looking to campaign 2016 specification GT3 cars, as well as from European factories that are looking to enter their own teams in GT Asia.

“So it’s important that we continue to improve the Series and I think the collection of events we have in place for 2016 will do just that.”

2016 GT Asia Series Schedule:
May 9-10 – Korea (Test Days)
May 13-15 – Korea (South Korea)
June 10-12 – Buriram (Thailand)
July 1-3 – Okayama (Japan)
July 15-17 – Fuji (Japan)
Sept. 2-4 – Shanghai (China)
Oct. 21-23 – Zhejiang (China)