Audi Sport Asia drivers Weiron Tan and Martin Rump will compete in Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia with Absolute Racing this season.
The Silver Cup crew are paired in one of the Chinese team’s two new-for-2019 R8 LMS GT3 Evos. The other is driven by Pro-Am duo Sun Jingzu and Cheng Congfu, whose entry was announced before Christmas.
Rump remains with Absolute Racing for a second season after finishing fourth in 2018’s drivers’ standings thanks, in part, to a maiden series victory at Suzuka.
Tan, meanwhile, joins the championship full-time after making two appearances with Absolute Racing in 2017. The 24-year-old Malaysian currently occupies third in the FIA WEC’s LMP2 standings and previously raced single-seaters across Europe and America.
“The Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia will be very competitive this season and I am extremely pleased that we have been able to secure the services of Martin and Weiron,” said Absolute Racing director, Ingo Matter.
“We’ve got what we consider to be strong Silver Cup and Pro-Am pairings so we are all out for overall and class titles. We have received excellent support from Audi Sport customer racing Asia in preparation for what is going to be a great season and we intend to maximise this opportunity as a team, and produce a strong showing amongst some very good teams and drivers in the region.”
Audi Sport customer racing Asia director Martin Kuehl added: “We are looking forward to working with Absolute Racing, who are one of Asia’s leading teams with proven championship-winning pedigree. The field in this season’s Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia will be fiercely competitive. But we are confident that our Audi Sport Asia drivers together with our customers and the 2019 Audi R8 LMS GT3 will be a very strong package.”
Absolute Racing has also entered a trio of new Porsche 911 GT3 Rs for this year’s Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia campaign, which begins at Sepang in Malaysia on April 6/7.
They’re joined on the grid by GT3 entries from Ferrari, Honda, Lamborghini, McLaren and Mercedes-AMG.