– Four 488 GT3s join burgeoning grid
Spirit of Race has become the first team to enter Ferraris in this year’s inaugural Blancpain GT Series Asia campaign after confirming no less than three 488 GT3s for all six rounds.
Two of the 488 GT3s will compete under the Spirit of Race banner. Portuguese GT ace Rui Aguas shares one of the cars with Singaporean Nasrat Muzayyin, whose experience includes this and last season’s Asian Le Mans Series aboard a combination of Ferrari 458 and 488 GT3s overseen by Spirit of Race.
Former AsLMS GT-Am champion and 2016 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia Pro-Am runner-up Massimiliano Wiser teams up with Jiang Xin, whose existing GT3 experience includes the GT Asia Series, aboard Spirit of Race’s second Ferrari.
The third Spirit of Race machine will be entered under BBT, who together with Italian-Chinese pairing Davide Rizzo and Anthony Xu Liu finished third in last season’s GT Asia Series campaign. All three are now poised to make their Blancpain GT Series Asia debuts in 2017.
Spirit of Race are no strangers to SRO-rules racing in Asia. One of its Ferraris contested December’s Sepang 12 Hours, while it also raced in the European-based Blancpain GT Series last season.
T2 Motorsports will also enter a fourth Ferrari on a race-by-race basis throughout the year for drivers Gregory Teo Bee Tat (Singapore) and David Tjiptobiantoro (Indonesia).
Championship Manager Benjamin Franassovici: “No GT championship would be complete without at least one Ferrari, so to have already secured three of the new 488 GT3s for the full season, and T2 Motorsport who won the 2016 Motul Sepang 12 Hours in AM/AM is great news. More race by race entries will be joining us during the season, in Buriram, Japan and also China. The quality of team and drivers speaks for itself. It will be fascinating to see how last season’s top three GT Asia Series teams fare against a wave of new rivals in 2017.