Lu and Buus complete lights-to-flag victory as title rivals collide

Lu Wei and Bastian Buus rescued what began as a tricky day for Origine Motorsport by claiming a lights-to-flag victory at Okayama that also helped it retain the teams’ championship.

JMR’s #66 Corvette shared by Abu Bakar Ibrahim and Alexander Sims finished second. But while one half of each garage celebrated, there was disappointment on the other sides where the hopes of this year’s two leading contenders – Bob Yuan and Leo Ye, and Jefri Ibrahim – were effectively ended before lap one’s completion.

Their retirements and results elsewhere mean seven crews can still win the drivers’ crown when 2025 concludes at the Beijing Street Circuit on October 17-19.

Absolute Racing’s Wang Zhongwei and Patrick Pilet completed the podium, while Anthony Liu’s battling second stint and fourth place ensures he could yet become the series’ first two-time champion on home soil.

Silver-Am appeared most likely to be settled this weekend. But Hirobon, Yu Kanamaru and 5ZIGEN’s second class win in as many days will give KRC’s long-time leaders Ruan CunFan and Maxime Oosten plenty to think about between now and China.

Uno Racing’s Shaun Thong and Rio also head there with a slim chance of winning the Silver title after collecting their second class win of the season.

Elsewhere, Garage 75’s David Tjiptobiantoro took a step closer to retaining his Am class crown with Christian Colombo by beating Setiawan Santoso and Martin Berry (EBM) to victory.

Lap one chaos leaves Lu out front

Two incidents in quick succession shaped a race that could yet have a significant bearing on 2025’s title battle. And both involved championship leader Ye. A fast start from third offered hope of passing team-mate and pole-man Buus, but having initially jinked right Ye then turned left towards the path of Sims who had nowhere to go but into the side of Daan Arrow. The domino effect sent Vollgas’ helpless Porsche spearing into the concrete wall.

Ahead, Ben Green – who started alongside Buus – attempted to pass the leading Porsche around the outside of Turn 1. Instead, his Corvette drifted wide over the curbs and rejoined alongside Ye who now had Sims on his outside. The three-car squeeze resulted in contact that broke #99’s rear suspension and sent Green into Ye’s rear, spinning the Porsche around at Turn 2. This series of events was later deemed a racing incident. Both limped back to the pits where retirement followed soon after.

Their demise left the door ajar for other serious title contenders to emerge. Buus’ part-season prevents him from being one of them, but his co-driver Lu took full advantage of the lead he inherited after a combination of his Pro’s fast stint and Phantom’s success penalty that dropped Anthony Liu down the order.

His co-driver, Dorian Boccolacci, spent the opening stint defending from Sims, which allowed Buus to scamper clear. The #4 911 GT3-R rejoined comfortably ahead, albeit from Absolute’s Wang who was powerless to keep Ibrahim behind for long. His Corvette was unable to make any further headway, however, and ultimately slipped 14 seconds behind Lu.

Liu fought his way back up to fourth but couldn’t clear a resolute Wang who hung on to the final podium place. The result leaves Phantom’s crew P4 in the standings, 20 points behind Yuan and Ye but within six of Lu and Jefri Ibrahim who failed to score a point this weekend.

Craft-Bamboo’s Cao Qi also heads to Beijing with a mathematical title chance after finishing fifth alongside co-driver Jayden Ojeda. However, he will have to win both races there to have any hope of overturning the 47-point deficit.

He was followed home by Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom’s Bian Ye and Markus Winkelhock who completed a top six solely comprising Pro-Am entries.

The scrap for Silver-Am spoils featured prominently throughout but it was 5ZIGEN’s crew that celebrated for the second time in quick succession after the Nissan pipped KRC’s BMW to seventh overall by just 0.5s. Ruan and Oosten would have been champions had the latter managed to pass Kanamaru but, as it is, the top two travel to China separated by 34 points.

Contact between Harmony’s #55 Ferrari and Uno’s Audi triggered a late Full Course Yellow period and resulted in a post-race investigation. But with no further action forthcoming, it was Rio and Thong that retained their provisional Silver victory and ninth place overall. Class rivals and points leaders Cheng Congfu and Yu Kuai completed the top 10.

Results are HERE