K-Tunes, Comet, Spirit of FFF and AMAC join strong Am Cup class

Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS will boast a strong GT3 Am Cup category this year following confirmation of four more entries from as many different manufacturers.

Reigning overall class champions Andrew Macpherson and Ben Porter are again scheduled to contest all six events with AMAC Motorsport’s Porsche, while K-Tunes (Lexus), Comet Racing (Ferrari) and The Spirit of FFF (Lamborghini) also return for the Fanatec Japan Cup rounds at Fuji, Suzuka, Motegi and Okayama.

They’re joined by another Am entry overseen by RUNUP SPORTS whose participation with Nissan has already been confirmed.

Contesting four additional races in Thailand and Malaysia will undoubtedly benefit AMAC’s crew in the overall standings. However, any advantage should swing back towards the local crews across the summer stretch, and especially so at Motegi which makes its first-ever appearance on the Fanatec GT calendar this year.

Australians Macpherson and Porter – who also won the series’ Am title in 2019 – are not eligible to score Fanatec Japan Cup points. Instead, that championship is currently between four full-season entries.

Comet’s Yusuke Yamasaki and Yorikatsu Tsujiko, who so memorably claimed overall victory at Suzuka last year, return after finishing second in the Am class standings. They raced a Honda NSX throughout 2022 but are swapping to the Ferrari 488 GT3 for the upcoming campaign.

Their entry is overseen by CarGuy Racing, which won the overall Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS drivers’ crown with another 488 GT3 last year. 

Elsewhere, the team formally known as Reap Fueling Ambitions will compete under a new name: The Spirit of FFF Racing – a reference to the now defunct Chinese team with whom Hiroshi Hamaguchi previously won SRO class titles in Europe and Asia. 

Hamaguchi and Mineki Okura form an unchanged driver line-up aboard the same B-Max Engineering-run Lamborghini that clinched half of last year’s Fanatec Japan Cup Am wins.

Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Honda, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG, Nissan and Porsche all feature on this year’s confirmed entry list. And now a ninth manufacturer – Lexus – can also be revealed courtesy of K-Tunes Racing.

The team and RC F GT3 both made their first-ever Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS appearances at Okayama last year and are now returning to contest the Fanatec Japan Cup with Kazunori Suenaga and Morio Nitta.

The Chang International Circuit in Thailand hosts the opening round of 2023’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS campaign on May 12-14.