Largest GT Rivals Grid Set for Suzuka

After winning three GT Rivals Esports Invitational rounds, Bryan Heitkotter will face his toughest challenge to date as the series heads to Japan for Round 5 with the largest grid yet with 38 entries.

The SRO America esports series travels to the home of the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli Suzuka 10 Hours on Sunday.

Coverage will begin at 3 p.m. ET across SRO’s GT World YouTube channel, SRO Motorsports Twitch Channel, and GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Facebook page.

At Spa, GT Rivals newcomer Christian Szymczak took pole position and showed speed in his first start in Assetto Corsa Competizione.

He’ll bring back the Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to challenge Heitkotter for the overall win.

Kenton Koch returns to action in the BSport Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, looking for better luck after running out of fuel on the last lap while in second at Paul Ricard.

Dakota Dickerson, driving the MLT Motorsports Ferrari 488 GT3, has strung together multiple podiums and striving for a solid qualifying effort to better challenge for the win.

After qualifying third at Spa, CrowdStrike Racing’s Kevin Boehm was on-track for another solid finish before internet difficulties regulated him to start from the back.

He later was involved in an incident putting his Mercedes-AMG into the wall at Eau Rouge and out of podium contention.

Champion Motorsport’s Dirk Groeneveld finished an impressive second last weekend at Spa and has an opportunity to challenge the pro racers for the overall win.

In only two starts, Kenny Murillo has also shown his speed to be a contender and working with teammate Szymczak, the duo are strong pair to consider dethrowning Heitkotter.

New Challengers Join the Fight

GTWC Europe driver and sim racing ace David Perel will pull double-duty this weekend.

The Blancpain GT Champion and two-time Total 24 Hours of Spa class winner will compete in the SRO E-Sport GT Series Pro Championship just a few hours before GT Rivals. He’ll strap into his Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3.

New Zealand’s Will Bamber, co-owner and driver of Earl Bamber Motorsports, will make his first start in GT Rivals. Bamber is set to make his GTWC Asia debut this season with his EBM team stepping up into Asia’s biggest GT championship racing with a Porsche 911 RSR.

Rising sports car driver Ben Waddell is set to debut in SRO America competition.

The former F4 and FR Americas driver has also spent time racing in IMSA’s Prototype Challenge and Michelin Pilot Challenge. He will bring to the grid his Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT3.

USAC champ Logan Seavey impressed everyone with his pace at Spa, qualifying in the Top 10.

Seavey got caught in the unfortunate opening lap mayhem and looks to take that pace into Suzuka this Sunday driving a Mercedes.