First Two GTWC Asia Events Postponed; Autopolis Added

The opening two rounds of the 2020 GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS season at Sepang and Buriram have been postponed in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The series announced on Saturday that the event at Sepang in Malaysia on Mar. 28-29 and the round at Buriram in Thailand on Apr. 25-26 will not take place.

This comes after the Malaysian government suspended all public gatherings until the end of April, in a bid to control the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus strain.

The measure led Sepang International Circuit to close, forcing events to be called off.

GTWC Asia organizer SRO Motorsports Group then also decided to postpone the Buriram event “in order to protect team members, participants and partners.”

As part of SRO’s contingency plan for the pandemic, a new round at Autopolis in Japan will be held on Jul. 11-12.

Another replacement event at an unconfirmed venue will be added near the end of the schedule, to maintain the six-round structure of the 2020 season.

The Autopolis races will take place after the unchanged rounds at Fuji (May. 23-24) and Suzuka (Jun. 20-21) which are now the first two events on the calendar.

GTWC Asia also confirmed that the two Chinese rounds at Shanghai International Circuit are set to take place as originally planned in September and October.