Title Rivals Collide in Dramatic Weekend at Okayama

The GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS title battle took a dramatic turn at Okayama as the points-leading Origine Motorsport No. 87 Porsche and the No. 99 Johor Motorsports Racing Corvette both failed to score in Race 2 after contact.

Leo Ye Hongli in the No. 87 Porsche 911 GT3 R and his opposite number in the No. 99 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, Ben Green, came to blows at Williams Corner (Turn 2) on the opening lap of Sunday’s second race at the former Pacific Grand Prix venue, leaving both cars, which had been first and second in the points, with race-ending damage.

That paved the way for a straightforward win for Origine’s No. 4 Porsche of Lu Wei and Bastian Buus, promoting Lu to second in the championship, 14 points behind Ye and Yuan Bo ahead of next month’s title-decider on the streets of Beijing.

Victory in Saturday’s opener went the way of Deng Yi and Luo Kailuo in the No. 96 Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, the Silver class Chinese pairing becoming only the fifth different crew to score an overall win this year and the first in a Ferrari.

Deng and Luo were never truly threatened in that race as Deng started on pole and built a gap large enough to overcome the additional five-second pit stop penalty applied to Silver class entries and allow Luo to keep the lead after the pit stops.

Luo ultimately ran out to a 7.141-second victory ahead of the Phantom Global Racing Porsche piloted by Anthony Liu and Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Selected Driver Dorian Boccolacci, who converted their front-row starting spot into second.

Lu and Buus completed the podium, helped by some of their immediate rivals, including Ye and Yuan in the sister Origine Porsche, taking success penalties in their stops.

Fourth on the road had been the Team KRC BMW M4 GT3 EVO, but a post-race penalty of 32 seconds for Ruan Cunfan making contact with the Absolute Corse Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Huang Ruohan dropped Ruan and Maxime Oosten to 12th.

Instead it was the 5ZIGEN Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Yu Kanamaru and ‘Hirobon’ that finished fourth, while the No. 45 Audi Sport Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II shared by Yu Kuai and Franky Cheng was fifth ahead of Ye and Yuan’s No. 87 Porsche.

JMR’s two Corvettes endured a miserable opener in 17th and 22nd, but looked set for a more positive Sunday outing as Green started alongside Buus on the front row.

However, a failed attempt at trying to pass Buus around the outside at Turn 1 put Green on the curbs and into the path of Ye, who was battling the sister No. 66 Corvette of Alexander Sims that had started fifth when the Porsche driver was turned around.

Ye — who, moments earlier, had triggered a start-line crash for the Vollgas Porsche of Daan Arrow by moving across on Sims approaching Turn 1 — was able to limp back to the pits along with Green, whose car was crabbing with suspension damage.

While no penalties were administered, Green’s Corvette was pushed back into the garage, and while Ye got going again after hasty repairs to the rear of his Porsche, he was forced to pit again mere minutes later and retire for good.

That left Buus leading Boccolacci and Sims at the head of the field, but the Phantom Global Porsche dropped down the order thanks to its pit stop success penalty.

Absolute Racing’s No. 911 Porsche started by Patrick Pilet emerged second after the stops, but Wang Zhongwei was unable to contain the No. 66 Corvette of Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim, who went on to finish some 14 seconds behind Origine’s Lu.

Wang held on for third ahead of Liu in the Phantom Global Porsche, while Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG duo Cao Qi and Jayden Ojeda completed the top five.

Ye and Yuan head to next month’s Beijing finale on 119 points, 14 clear of Lu (with Buus ineligible owing to him sharing his Origine seat with Alessio Picariello), with JMR’s Prince Jefri Ibrahim a further point behind with 50 points left on the table.

Four other crews go to China still in with a chance of the championship: Phantom Global pair Liu and Boccolacci (99 points), Audi Sport Asia pair Yu and Cheng (80), KRC BMW drivers Ruan and Oosten (73) and Craft-Bamboo’s Qi (72).

One title however has already been wrapped up, as a fifth overall win in ten races confirmed Origine as the teams’ champion.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2