D’station confirms 2024 Fanatec GT Asia and Japan Cup programmes

The region’s most prominent Aston Martin Racing customer squad, D’station Racing, will contest both Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS and Japan Cup in 2024.

The Japanese team already competes in the FIA WEC and Asian Le Mans Series but is now broadening its horizons further by mounting a full-season Fanatec GT Asia campaign after contesting its native Japan Cup for the last two years.

D’station’s regular Pro-Am duo Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii won twice overall in 2022 and have been Japan Cup runners-up for the last two years. Now they return for a pan-Asia assault with a new GT3 car at their disposal in the shape of AMR’s Vantage successor.

Fujii recently sampled the car at a private test in the UK in preparation for the upcoming season, which includes outings at Sepang and Chang before Japanese rounds take centre stage over the summer.

Three of those weekends include additional races counting towards SRO’s Japan Cup, which D’station is also contesting with another new Aston Martin GT3. The season begins with a standalone race at Sugo.

Sharing the new car are Am pairing Kenji Hama and Tatsuya Hoshino – the brother of team patron Satoshi. Both graduate to GT3 after previously contesting Fanatec GT Asia’s standalone GT4 races at Okayama earlier this year at the wheel of a D’station Vantage. They were also Super Taikyu ST-Z class runners-up with the same car in 2020 and ’21.

That chassis could continue to compete in Japan Cup next year, subject to D’station’s discussions with potential drivers. The team has indicated its interest in the domestic championship’s GT4 class, which is open to all Asian residents. The series begins with a standalone event at Sugo on June 7-9 before joining Fanatec GT Asia – but also racing separately – at Fuji, Suzuka and Okayama.

“I am very happy to announce our entry for the 2024 season of Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia and Japan Cup,” said Fujii. “As the largest GT3 championship in Asia, it is also the most competitive championship in Asia with so many factory drivers and technical support from Europe. It is exciting to be able to compete amongst these teams again. 

“We will be fully prepared for the season opener with two updated Aston Martin GT3s and aim to fight for the championship in both series. We are still looking at several options to possibly field a third entry in the GT4 class.”