Origine takes GTWC Asia crown again as Liu fumbles at Beijing

A Chinese title fight was the perfect scenario to debut the Beijing E-Town street circuit in GT World Challenge Asia, and the situation could have been really different from how it ended, as Phantom Global’s Anthony Liu had the advantage and threw it away with similar race ending brake failures in both races, opening the door for the No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan GT-R GT3 to win the Race 1 and for the No. 55 WINHERE Harmony Ferrari 296 GT3 to win the second race, but more importanly, it allowed Yuan Bo and Ye Hongli to secure the title for Origine Motorsport with a more cautious approach at the fast and wide track.
 

The first race started with the No. 96 Harmony Ferrari staying in the lead while the rest of the field was looking for a place to settle , throwing brake challenges as the wide circuit allowed it.
 

Cao Qi found the barriers midway into the first stint, but the damage was minimal to the No. 31 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes, but the same couldn’t be said about the No. 96 Harmony Ferrari, as the No. 37 Phantom Global Porsche obliterated it when Anthony Liu locked the brakes at the restart in Turn 1, bringing the Safety Car just seconds after its first arrival, but now with the No. 55 Harmony Ferrari in the lead and the pit window open. With cars going for regular service, eventually the No. 45 Phantom Audi took the overall lead and the Silver Cup top spot.
 
With too many interruptions, only 15 minutes of green flag racing were left, and Audi Team Phantom was actively looking for a 1-2 as the No. 46 was pressing the No. 55, but this turned into the lead battle as the No. 45 was penalized due to short pit time, with many other cars having penalties, which included the No. 46 and the No. 55, promoting the No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan to the overall and Silver-Am leads.
 
As the minutes passed, the No. 10 GTO Porsche was closing down on the No. 500, with Nico Menzel pressing hard Yu Kanamaru. In the final lap, Menzel was glued on Kanamaru, but couldn’t find the way past the No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan, which claimed overall victory by 0.280 seconds and the Silver-Am Cup win by almost 4 seconds.
 
GTWC Asia - Beijing Race 1 results
 
The No. 10 GTO Porsche still got Pro-Am Cup honors despite losing the overall win, while the No. 77 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes was pretty close to the overall top five when it narrowly won the Silver Cup. The No. 8 EBM Mercedes won the Am Cup from ninth overall, making it a rare occasion when all class winners were inside the overall top 10.
 

The Sunday race is where the matters would be settled, and the fixed No. 37 Phantom Global Porsche led the way with Dorian Boccolacci while Yifei Ye was on the chase in the No. 55 Harmony Ferrari, getting away from Jayden Ojeda’s influence as the No. 31 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes was on the defensive from the No. 4 Origine Porsche.
 
The Safety Car was called for debris on the racing line, but it retreated quickly, with the scenario involving Boccolaci and Ye going back to almost the same state it was, though Ojeda, Bastian Buus and Ben Green were much closer to the leaders than before, throwing moves at each other to force an opening.
 
The lunge festival behind Anthony Liu changed the order in favor of Ben Green, in special after Ojeda did a desperate move on Ye at Turn 1, only for his bonnet to open and the car to come to a halt with mechanical issues, bringring the Safety Car back to track in the middle of the pit window.
 
With 24 minutes to go and the mandatory pit stop done, the No. 55 became the leader, followed by the two JMR Corvettes until Anthony Liu decided to lunge on Abu Bakar Ibrahim for third, with Bao Jinlong following Liu to get fourth place for the No. 46 Phantom Audi, but race and championship fortunes would take a twist a few corners later, when Liu lost the brakes again at Turn 1, though this time, the No. 37 veered to the left to hit the wall alone instead of striking the car ahead, bringing another Safety Car intervention.
 
With track clearing work taking longer than expected, the Safety Car stood on track longer than expected, with the neutralization lasting until the finish, crowing the No. 55 Harmony Ferrari as the winner. The No. 29 Absolute Lamborghini was the Silver-Am Cup winner, while the No. 77 CRAFT Bamboo completed a Silver Cup sweep in the last GTWC Asia race for a retiring Darryl O’Young, while the No. 51 AMAC Porsche beat the favorite No. 8 EBM Mercedes for Am Cup honors.
 
GTWC Asia - Beijing Race 2 results
 
Yuan and Ye ended the season in a 125 point dead heat with Lu Wei, but the duo from the No. 87 Origine Porsche had more wins and took the GTWC Asia title, while Lu Wei took the Pro-Am Cup title with 155 points over the 154 of Jeffri Ibrahim.
 

Yu and Cheng (No. 45) took Silver Cup honors with 211 points over the 198 of Jiatong Liang, while in the Silver-Am Cup, Team KRC’s Maxime Oosten and Ruan Cun Fan took the title with 230 points over the 195 from 5ZIGEN’s Yu Kanamaru. In the Am Cup, Garage 75’s David Tjiptobiantoro and Christian Colombo scored 229 points to beat Setiawan Santoso’s 202 points for the class title.
 

Between the teams, Origine Motorsport won by a landslide over JMR, scoring 260 points over the 185 from the Malaysian team.
 
The 2026 season is expected to start at Sepang on 4 and 5 April, according to SRO’s announcement during the 24 Hours of Spa weekend.
 
PHOTOS: SRO, Jun Qian