“Back to Normal” GTWC Asia Calendar Revealed for 2027

A reshuffled calendar that goes “back to normal” has been revealed for the GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS for next season that features a return to Buriram and a focus on reducing costs.

The series has suffered a decline in grid numbers in recent times and organizer SRO Motorsports Group revealed during its Friday press conference at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa that efforts are being made to cut costs to tempt more cars onto the grid.

The six-round season will still open with its traditional race at Sepang in April before then visiting Thai venue Buriram rather than the Indonesian Mandelika circuit, which is instead set to return at the start of the 2028 campaign when Ratel hopes “the grid will have replenished a bit.”

Suzuka is also back on the schedule in the place of Okayama in a bid to help support the Suzuka 1000km Intercontinental GT Challenge event later in the year.

Fuji will be Round 4, while the two Chinese events at the Beijing street circuit and Shanghai will both be held in October to make logistics easier for teams after the fixtures were originally due to be separated by four months this year before the schedule was twice shuffled.

A ten-year agreement has been signed with Beijing officials to show SRO’s commitment towards the event and Ratel described running the two meetings at the same time of year as something that “makes a lot more sense.”

“It’s been a bit more difficult this year especially because we were very ambitious, let’s go to Mandalika in Indonesia, let’s go to the streets of Beijing, let’s go to China once, let’s go back to China at the end of the year,” Ratel explained of the grid numbers.

“I think for the teams it started to be too expensive so Benjamin [Franassovici, SRO Motorsports Group Asia General Manager] has really worked well into reworking the calendar. We go back to normal.”

2027 GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS Schedule:
April 3-4 — Sepang
May 1-2 — Buriram
June 12-13 — Suzuka
July 10-11 — Fuji
Oct. 2-3 — Beijing
Oct. 23-24 — Shanghai

Bathurst Added to GTWC Australia Calendar

The calendar for the GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS was also revealed at Friday’s press conference and includes a first standalone SRO-organized event at Bathurst, with the series last visiting the circuit in its previous guise in 2024.

The season will continue to be opened by events at Phillip Island (Apr. 17-18) and The Bend (May 29-30), while Sydney Motorsport Park and Queensland Raceway also retain their places on the schedule before an October visit to Bathurst.

A sixth event has yet to be confirmed and neither Hidden Valley, new to the schedule in 2026, or Adelaide currently have a place on next year’s roster.

“Bathurst is synonymous with Australian motorsport and having the category compete there as part of the newly confirmed Shannons SpeedSeries event is a major highlight for teams, drivers and fans,” said SRO Australia chief executive Ben McMellan.

2027 GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS Schedule:
Apr. 17-18 — Phillip Island
May 29-30 — The Bend
July 24-25 — Sydney Motorsport Park
Sept. 18-19 — Queensland Raceway
Oct. 30-31 — Bathurst
TBA