GT Asia: Vilander on track at Fuji with Mok
Once again the Clearwater Racing team can count on two top drivers in the WEC and ELMS series alongside team drivers Mok Weng Sun and Richard Wee.
The GT Asia Series championship gets back on track this weekend at Fuji, where it may clash dangerously with a typhoon that has already made landfall in Japan and affected the free practice sessions. Eight Ferraris will be on track in the GT3 and GTM categories, in Round three of this season’s championship.
Vilander has a go
Once again the Clearwater Racing team can count on two top drivers in the WEC and ELMS series alongside team drivers Mok Weng Sun and Richard Wee. Finland’s Toni Vilander, GT World Endurance Championship winner in 2014 and star of the series along with former teammate “Gimmi” Bruni will be in the 458 Italia GT3 no. 1. Bruni teamed up with Mok for the last race in Okayama, but the car pulled out due to technical failure.
Wee will be joined by Matt Griffin, regular teammate of Duncan Cameron in the European Le Mans Series and in other Endurance races. Eyes will also be on the Singha Motorsport car, fresh from a podium finish at Okayama with Piti Bhirombhakdi and Carlo Van Dam. Then there is the new development of the round. Championship leaders, Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo, will not be taking part in car no. 37. Their place will be taken by car no. 9 with Jiang Xin and Max Wiser, driving for the Spirit of Race team.
GTM class
There are four other Ferraris in the GTM class. Unlike the GT3 class, the cars are 458 Challenge EVOs, which are currently taking part in the three Ferrari Challenge series. James Cai and Kenneth Lim will alternate in no. 69, while cars no. 70, 78 and 95 will compete for Taiwan Top Speed Racing team and will be driven respectively by Craig Liu and Ryo Fukuda, George Chou and Jeff Lu, and K.S. Wang and Shogo Mitsuyama. The programme includes two 60-minute races to be held on Saturday and Sunday.
History
Ferrari has notched up ten victories at Fuji. The first was in September 1970 with Giampiero Moretti in a 200-mile race at the wheel of a 512 S of Scuderia Picchio Rosso team. The most recent was last October in the fifth race of the World Endurance Championship, won by Toni Vilander and Bruni at the wheel of the 458 Italia GTE in the GTE-Pro class.
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