Japanese teams Comet and GTO confirm Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS entries

Japanese teams Comet and GTO confirm Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS entries

> Comet Racing commits to multi-class Japan Cup programme
> GTO Racing Team also tackling four Japanese rounds

Two more Japanese teams – Comet Racing and GTO Racing Team – have confirmed plans to contest this year’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS campaign.

Comet, which was only established in 2020, make their series debut with a Honda NSX GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT4. Both entries will compete in Japan Cup’s four points-paying rounds held at Suzuka, Fuji, Sugo and Okayama.

The team’s GT3 entry is overseen by former F1, Indy 500 and Le Mans driver Shinji Nakano, and features Am-Am duo Yorikatsu Tsujiko and Yusuke Yamasaki. Both previously raced Comet’s Mercedes-AMG GT4 in Japan’s domestic Super Taikyu series, while the latter also sampled GTWC Asia’s GT3 class with CarGuy Racing in 2019.

Kazuhiro Sakai and Masaaki Fujii, who were part of Comet’s 2021 Dubai 24 Hour entry with Tsujiko and Yamasaki, return to the same Mercedes-AMG GT4.

Meanwhile GTO, who are also contesting the four Japan Cup rounds with a Mercedes-AMG GT4, can draw on their championship experience from 2019 – SRO Motorsports Group’s last Asian campaign – when Tony Fong and Brian Lee finished fifth in the GT4 standings. Now, the latter returns alongside Silver-Am co-driver and Super GT regular Hideto Yasuoka who also partnered Lee during a one-off GT3 outing at Shanghai in 2017.

Comet and GTO are the latest in a string of Japanese entrants – which include BMW Team Studie, D’Station Racing, Yogibo Racing, Porsche Center Okazaki, CarGuy Racing and ABSSA – to confirm their full-season and Japan Cup participation this year.

Further announcements are expected in the coming weeks ahead of GTWC Asia’s opening round at Sepang on May 20-22.