Heinrich Sets Up Origine Porsche Win on Series Return

Porsche factory star Laurin Heinrich powered Origine Motorsport to GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS victory last weekend at Fuji Speedway in his first outing in the series in two years, allowing co-driver Lu Wei to close on the points lead.

In his first appearance of the year aboard the renumbered No. 11 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, Heinrich’s opening stint in Sunday’s second race proved instrumental in giving the team its second win of the year, which also put Lu back ahead in the all-time winners’ list.

Another series returnee, Chen Weian, meanwhile celebrated a comeback win sharing the No. 96 Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 with Liu Kaishun on Saturday.

Chen had put the field on notice by taking pole for his first GTWC Asia race since last year’s Mandalika round, but was shuffled back to third on the opening lap of the one-hour race behind the sister Harmony Ferrari of Adderly Fong and the No. 16 FAW-backed Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Franky Cheng that made a jump start.

However, the Sakura-liveried No. 96 car had a smooth path back to the front as Fong was forced to serve an additional ten seconds during the mandatory pit stops as a solo driver due to usual co-driver Sun Jingzu’s last-minute withdrawal.

Behind Liu for the start of the second stint was another Ferrari, the LM Corsa machine that Shigekazu Wakisaka handed over to Ryo Ogawa, with Cheng’s co-driver Yu Kuai emerging third after the car’s five-second penalty for its start violation.

Ogawa, another driver returning to the championship after a two-year absence, pressured Liu during the second stint but fell 0.877 seconds shy of the win.

Taking the final step on the podium was the No. 11 Origine car of Lu and Heinrich, as the latter rose from fifth after the mandatory stops to pass both SUPER GT star Atsushi Miyake’s 5ZIGEN Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 and Yu’s Audi in his stint.

Fong had to be content with sixth aboard his Evo-spec No. 13 Ferrari.

Heinrich starred again on Sunday as he started third behind the pole-winning Team KRC BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Max Hesse and guesting Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver Tom Sargent in an additional Absolute Racing 911.

The German driver made quick work of Sargent but Hesse proved a tougher proposition, particularly as their battling allowed Brendon Leitch, who had started fifth in his Harmony Ferrari, to get involved in the lead battle and briefly get out in front.

However, once Heinrich was able to pass Leitch he stretched out a gap large enough for co-driver Lu to take over at the stops, serve the additional five-second penalty for finishing third on Saturday and stay ahead of his opposite number Song Jiajun.

Lu proceeded to gap Song, who found himself coming under pressure from Tony Ruan Cunfan in the KRC BMW and Anthony Liu’s Phantom Global Racing Porsche, which had started 15th in the hands of Dorian Boccolacci but emerged fifth after the pit stops.

Liu passed Ruan for third and then grabbed second from Song with 15 minutes left on the clock, but was only able to reduce Lu’s advantage out front from around nine seconds to 6.7 seconds en route to a third podium finish of the year.

After snatching third away from Song, Ruan was forced to turn his attentions to the 5ZIGEN Nissan of Takayuki Aoki, barely hanging on to the final spot on the podium by four thousandths of a second in an entertaining photo finish.

As Song slipped to eighth, Fong’s Ferrari completed the top five ahead of Absolute’s championship leaders Alessandro Ghiretti and Huang Ruohan, who finished a low-key ninth on Saturday in their Porsche, and the LM Corsa Ferrari.

Sargent and co-driver Kyle Washington slumped to a disappointing 16th despite the fact Washington briefly ran third immediately after the pit stops.

Despite a tough weekend, Ghiretti and Huang maintain the lead of the championship at the halfway point of the season, but with a heavily reduced four-point margin over Lu, while Anthony Liu sits only a further four points back in third overall.

GTWC Asia’s Japanese swing continues with the fourth round of the season at Okayama International Circuit on Aug. 29-30.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2