SEVERAL AUSSIES PREPARE FOR BLANCPAIN GT ASIA SERIES

Blancpain GT Asia commences this weekend with several Aussies in the field

A large contingent of Australians will contest the opening round of the second Blancpain GT Asia Series at Sepang this weekend headed by Brad Jones Racing driver Tim Slade.

Slade will contest the series, bar the Fuji round, which clashes with the Ipswich Supersprint round in a HubAuto Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 alongside team principal Morris Chen.

Supercars star Tim Slade will be amongst the Aussie contingent

There is Aussie flavour in the second Ferrari as Nick Foster joins the team after racing a Porsche 911 RSR in last year’s World Endurance Championship for Gulf Racing. Foster will pair up with Leo Ye Hongli after guest driving in last year’s series with Craft Bamboo Racing with a Pole Position and two podiums from his six starts.

Super2 driver Shae Davies will be a part of the Craft Bamboo Racing team at Sepang driving a Porsche 991 GT3R with Thailand’s Sandy Stuvik. Davies showed strong pace in the car during testing held in January and joins fellow Australian Aidan Read at Craft Bamboo, though Read will join the experienced Darren O’Young in the second Porsche. Read finished a best of second in an FFF Race Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 partnering Lamborghini Junior Alberto Di Falco last year.

Josh Burdon will join Absolute Racing

Tasmanian racer Josh Burdon will line-up within an Absolute Racing Audi R8 GT3 LMS and will be paired alongside China’s Anthony Liu. Burdon had a successful season in last year’s Chinese-based FRD LMP3 Series, finishing second with numerous race victories.

Australian GT regular Andrew MacPherson is missing from the Tailem Bend grid this weekend as he heads to Sepang alongside co-driver Benjamin Porter in his AMAC Lamborghini Huracan GT3. It is a return to Malaysia for MacPherson, who contested the Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race in 2010.

A field of 29-cars will start at Sepang ahead of a further five-rounds across Asia. Qualifying starts on Saturday at 1:55 AEST, before Race 1 starts at 5:45pm AEST which will be live-streamed. Tune into Auto Action’s social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram for details on how to watch it live.

Also, make sure you pick up the latest issue of Auto Action for more of the latest on Australian drivers competing Internationally.