Phantom Global Planning Indy 8H Effort

Photo: Gruppe C Photoaraphy/SRO

Phantom Global Racing is set to add the closing leg of the Intercontinental GT Challenge to its program for this year, with the Chinese squad plotting a run in the Indianapolis 8 Hour powered by AWS.

It would come in addition to its international debut at the season-opening Repco Bathurst 12 Hour, where Jaxon Evans, Joel Eriksson and Bastian Buus drove their Porsche 911 GT3 R to a fourth place finish.

Evans and Eriksson will be joined by reigning DTM champion Thomas Preining for this weekend’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, under the assistance of Team 75 Bernhard, which will again provide engineering and logistical support to the team.

When asked by Sportscar365 if the team will travel to the U.S. for the fifth and final round of the season, Team 75 principal Timo Bernhard said: “It’s planned.”

“Not 100 percent, but it’s planned,” he added. “It also depends the outcome of Spa. Let’s hope it’s going to be a good one.”

Bernhard indicated that the Indy entry would also again be in the Pro class, although the driver lineup has not been finalized.

“Spa, I think, we have a great lineup and we’re very happy,” he added. “Bathurst showed, it was the first race and for sure not everything was a 100 percent working out but it was already very good.”

Phantom Global would become Porsche’s first Pro class overseas entrant in the race’s four-year history.

“We had a good Bathurst, just missed the podium in the last five minutes,” Bernhard said. “And Spa, it’s the toughest GT race in the world. You can not expect anything going there, but I think we can have a good race.”

Bernhard’s Team 75 operation will in fact be playing a larger role in the operation of Phantom Global’s program at Spa.

“We’re prepping the Spa car, so that comes along very well and then we’re helping,” Bernhard said. “It’s our infrastructure. It’s our trailers and stuff, we help with the No. 1 mechanics and the engineers.

“But they bring also mechanics so it’s like really working together. Spa is more resources from us, because we’re based in Europe, we’re 200 kilometers away from Spa so this makes sense.

“That’s how it it really comes together.”

Two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans overall winner Bernhard, a Porsche ambassador and newly named driver advisor for Porsche Penske Motorsport, said he’s been pleased with the level of cooperation with the team in other series as well.

“That’s where you really see the strength of a cooperation like that,” he said. ‘If you have it like GT World Asia, it’s different racing in Asia out of the containers and everything. But it’s more people from Phantom Global.

“It’s a very good team. It’s just the first year for the team, so I think it really helps that we can help them.

“Next to GT World Challenge Asia and IGTC, they’re also doing a Carrera Cup Asia with six cars. So we also help with one engineer there.

“It’s a proper team, which I think will grow in the future.”

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