Sargent Excited for GTWC Asia Debut; GT Academy Prospects

Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche

Tom Sargent says he’s excited to be making his GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS debut in next weekend’s round at Fuji Speedway, as a one-off ride with Absolute Racing amid his season-long quest of securing the SRO GT Academy prize in America.

The Porsche Motorsport North America Selected driver will team up with his GMG Racing co-driver Kyle Washington in one of Absolute’s Porsche 911 GT3 R Evos for the pair of sprint races on July 11-12.

“It was something that was fairly last minute,” he told Sportscar365. “My engineer, who engineers our GT World Challenge [America] car, Rodolphe Sauvageot, engineers the car in Asia for Absolute.

“Their driver, unfortunately, took injury, so he’s going to miss that round.

“They had a spare car for us, basically, so they said there was an opportunity to come in.

“We got approval because I think Asia has tight rules with needing an [Asian-based] driver, so we were able to get an entry.

“For Kyle, it was something he’d wanted to do for a long time. He loves that part of the world and he’d been looking at doing it but it just hadn’t really lined up.

“This one lined up for us. It’s exciting. It’s going to be new for us all. But we’re looking forward it. It’s a slightly different format to what we’re used to but it will be good run.”

The 22-year-old U.S.-based Australian will be racing in Japan for the first time and in the third different GT World Challenge series, after making selected GTWC Europe starts last year with Wright Motorsports.

“I’ve never actually been to Japan before,” said Sargent. “Kyle’s done a lot of stuff in Japan but it will be a new experience for me.

“Hopefully it can lead to some more stuff for me and maybe that’s what he wants to do in the future as well.

“I want to try and get a guest start in GTWC Australia. That would be amazing, But Europe, America and now ticking off Asia will be fun.

“It will be fun to see the difference. Obviously there’s slightly different rulesets in each as they’re different competition.”

Sargent, who has entered the GTWC America summer break in the Pro-Am class points lead with GMG co-driver Washington, also continues to front the SRO GT Academy standings in GTWC America.

The winner of the new-for-2026 competition, for eligible FIA Silver-rated drivers under the age of 30, will receive a fully-funded seat in next year’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, alongside winners of the same criteria in GTWC Asia, GTWC Australia and the GT3 class in the British GT Championship.

It was announced last weekend that the car for the Belgian endurance classic will be supplied by Mercedes-AMG, which Sargent indicated wouldn’t be a deal-breaker despite his current ties to Porsche.

“Thankfully I’m part of the Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver program for this year and the year before,” he said. “Where that stands next year, I don’t know. But at the current time, I can do that.

“Obviously we still have to win the series first. But it’s been a really good start for us, obviously. We have a perfect four rounds.

“If we can continue this trajectory, then hopefully we’ll get that start at Spa next year.”

Sargent ‘Learning So Much’ Jumping Between Porsche GT3 Customer Teams

While his primary season-long effort is with the James Sofronas-owned GMG squad in GTWC America, Sargent is also fresh off a GTD class podium in last weekend’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen with Wright and continues his maiden European Le Mans Series campaign this weekend at Imola in a Proton Competition-run Porsche.

Sargent currently sits second in the ELMS LMGT3 class standings after a class win on debut at Barcelona in April.

“I jumped a lot between GMG and Proton,” he said. “I hadn’t done that much with Wright because I hadn’t driven with Wright since Sebring.

“It was actually a little bit different going back [to Watkins Glen]. It was the first time in a long time. But I like the guys at Wright. It’s great. I get on well with all the teams that I’ve been so far competing with.

“It’s cool because you learn so much stuff. Each team does something a little bit differently and I can bring my knowledge and what I know and help out because it only helps everyone else.”

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