A warm welcome to the Blancpain GT Series Asia!

Although the Asian GT market is still growing and somehow expanding into other exploits in other continents, the home market is pretty solid not only in Japan but also with China and Thailand being the main representatives. With this in mind, the SRO announced last weekend that the Asian counterpart of the Blancpain GT Series will start in 2017, which can be another GT competition to watch along with the already established GT Asia.

SRO already has its adventures in the Asian continent, as the organization runs the successful FIA GT World Cup at the Guia Circuit in the streets of Macau and also the 12 Hours of Sepang, succeeding not only to bring Asian entries to them but also to gather high profile European teams and drivers due to the inclusion of the Sepang classic into the new Intercontinental GT Challenge banner. The Blancpain GT Series Asia will group two categories under the SRO wing, combining GT3 and GT4 machinery into six weekends, with five of them being a pair of races in the weekend with one hour each, while the last round will be a race into the race, as the first two hours of the Sepang 12 Hours will be the season finale.

The Blancpain GT Series Asia schedule starts in April at Sepang and then goes to Thailand in May. Japan then will hold a pair of weekends, starting with Suzuka in June and then the Fuji Speedway in August. Shanghai is the last double-header race weekend of the season in October, with the 2 hour Sepang event into the Sepang 12 Hours bringing the curtains down at December. Specific dates are still to be announced.

If no clashes with the GT Asia Series occur, healthy grids from the GT3 side are expected, and while the GT4 category isn’t exactly popular in the continent, it can be cost-effective enough to bring some decent numbers to the championship.

PHOTO: Sepang 12 Hours