JMR Corvettes Set for Indy 8H Debut; Focus on IGTC

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

JMR Johor Racing has committed to a return to the Indianapolis 8 Hour powered by AWS, with the Malaysian squad having confirmed plans to field two Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs, including a Pro class car with GM factory drivers, in the majority of Intercontinental GT Challenge events.

It comes as part of a refocused effort around SRO Motorsports Group’s globe-trotting GT3 series after previous campaigns in GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS and the Asian Le Mans Series.

Fresh off the 2025-26 Asian LMS season, JMR is giving the Corvette its Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour debut this weekend, featuring a Pro entry for Earl Bamber, Alexander Sims and Nicky Catsburg.

It marks the team’s first IGTC start since scoring a podium in last September’s Suzuka 1000km, another race which the team will undertake this year according to team manager Andrew “Simmo” Simpson.

“Our plans are to send everything from here to our base in Europe, in The Netherlands,” Simpson told Sportscar365. “We’re only an hour from Spa, which is quite good.

“We’re going to do some testing before the Spa 24. Our cars from the Middle East will be there as well. We’ll have everything in the one spot.”

Simpson said they initially had plans to field a two-car entry for the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, after focusing on a single Corvette in the Bronze Cup class last year.

However, a clash with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, where all Corvette factory drivers will be engaged in, has resulted in GM being unable to loan any of its works pilots to the team for the Belgian endurance classic.

“At the moment it might be two, it might be one,” said Simpson. “We’ll see how it goes but most likely it will be one, I think.”

JMR, however, will return to full strength in the final two IGTC rounds, fielding a Pro and Pro-Am car each.

It will mark the JMR’s second outing at The Brickyard after the team, then operated by Triple Eight Race Engineering, ran a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in the 2024 race for Love, Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Arjun Maini.

The only IGTC round it will skip this year will be the Nürburgring 24 as the Pratt Miller-built machine is not yet homologated to contest the race due to ADAC-specific modifications required for GT3 cars.

Simpson revealed they initially explored also contesting a full season of GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup but ultimately decided against it for this year.

“We were going to do GTWC Endurance but we don’t think we’re quite ready for it yet,” he said. “I think just concentrating on IGTC [will be a good step]. Maybe next year we’ll do GTWC Europe.

“For a Malaysian team and for the boys to get overseas…. We’ve done it last year in bits and pieces but we really want to concentrate on doing the European stuff now and doing IGTC as well.”

With its current and future focus largely in Europe, the team will not return to GTWC Asia competition this year after finishing third in the overall standings and second in the Pro-Am Cup with Prince Jefri Ibrahim in 2025.

JMR has also gone through several Corvettes following two chassis-damaging accidents during the recent Asian LMS season, with one new car brought in for the double-header at Dubai Autodrome.

The No. 99 Corvette of the Princes Jefri and Abu Bakar, Jordan Love and Ben Green, which is competing in the Pro-Am class this weekend, is also a new chassis.

Simpson explained it’s the goal to have a total of four race-ready chassis at its disposal.

JMR Submits 24H Le Mans Entry Request

Simpson also confirmed that the team has lodged a entry request for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, for a single Corvette entry in the LMGT3 class.

“We’re still trying to work on trying to get to the Le Mans 24 Hours if we can,” he said. “It’s still a bit touch and go. We’ll see how we go with that.”

A total of four Corvettes are currently confirmed for the French endurance classic.

This includes the full season FIA World Endurance Championship cars from TF Sport, a third TF entry via its auto invite for winning the 2025 European Le Mans Series LMGT3 title and Orey Fidani’s invite for winning the Bob Akin Award in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship that will be run by his 13 Autosport squad.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John