Eurasia, EKS Motorsports Commit to Blancpain GT Asia

The inaugural Blancpain GT Series Asia campaign continues to gather pace after two more outfits, CMRTeam by Eurasia and EKS Motorsports, confirmed they will both join the championship for its inaugural season in 2017.

CMRTeam by Eurasia will enter an Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 in the series for drivers James Cai and Kenneth Lim. The Chinese-Malaysian pairing raced GT cars together in 2015 before the latter claimed this year’s Renault Clio Cup China drivers’ title.

Its Aston Martin will be run by Eurasia, a team with a proven track record in sports car, single-seater and GT ranks in both Asia and Europe.

“We are very excited to be part of the inaugural Blancpain GT Series Asia campaign,” said Lim. “It will be our first full season in the Aston Martin and we cannot wait to start racing.”

CMRTeam by Eurasia’s Aston Martin joins the three Mercedes-AMG GT3s confirmed by GruppeM less than two weeks ago, while further high-profile announcements are expected early in the new year.

Also committing to the new-for-2017 championship is one of the region’s foremost outfits, EKS, which will field a single Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR for Am duo Chang Tzu Ching (Keo Chang) and Wang Chih-Chuan (Jeremy Wang).

The Taiwanese pair will benefit from EKS Motorsports’ extensive Porsche know-how, having been the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Championship’s Official Technical Service Provider for the past 14 years.

It is the second Cayman confirmed in the GT4 class following HubAuto’s announcement last week.

“Blancpain GT Series Asia is the perfect racing platform for us as GT4’s Am format is ideal for our drivers who are stepping up to a more professional environment that features state-of-the-art BoP,” said team principal Hong Heng Soon.

“Everyone at EKS Motorsports is looking forward to testing the car and the challenge that awaits us. Sepang next April can’t come soon enough.”

Added Blancpain GT Series Asia General Manager Benjamin Franassovici: “I’m delighted to welcome another two established names in Asian motorsport to the Blancpain GT Series Asia fold for next season.

“The championship is coming together nicely and we’re expecting to announce more top teams soon. Indeed, at this stage – when considering these latest confirmations, enquiries and firm commitments – we expect to see 20-plus entries for our first campaign in 2017.”