McLaren 720S GT3 joins Blancpain GT Asia with ABSSA Motorsport

The diversity in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia grid increases a bit more with the McLaren brand returning to the series and the new 720S GT3 model set to make its debut on it, courtesy of ABSSA Motorsport from Japan.

In fact the team is really new, being founded this year, but the name behind the team is well known in the Asian GT scene, as Keita Sawa is the man responsible for it. He is better known for being one side of what can be called one of the best driver pairings in Asia, having a long record with a now retired Mok Weng Sun and Clearwater Racing, and by coincidence, this history had an experience with McLaren machinery in both the Asian Le Mans Series and in Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia, which gave a class title in the ACO-sanctioned competition and pretty much propelled their Le Mans adventure.

Sawa commented that he was impressed with the growing Japanese representation in Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia, so the series was the first target when ABSSA Motorsport was created. Despite not having a big number of full time teams, Japan has strong contenders on it, like race-winner CarGuy Racing and ARN Racing in the GT3 field, and title-winning Team Studie in the GT4 class, though CarGuy changed focus to Le Mans now.

Sawa’s team mate will be Tadao Uematsu, a GT300 regular in Super GT last decade, who was dedicated to Super Taikyu recently, though in 2018 he gave himself a break into GT racing and competed in the ST-TCR class, returning to grand touring this year.

The 2019 Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia season will start on April 6^th and 7^th at Sepang. In Malaysia. 

PHOTO: McLaren Automotive