Bingo Racing’s fan favourite, V8-powered Corvette will contest all four Japan Cup events next year.
Its driver line-up – most likely to be Pro-Am – will be confirmed at a later date.
The Callaway Competition-designed and built C7 GT3-R won the opening race at Fuji earlier this season in the hands of Shinji Takei and Akira Iida before suffering a dramatic airborne accident in Race 2.
Despite making its competitive debut back in 2016, this was the C7 GT3-R’s first-ever victory in any SRO Motorsports Group-organised series. Not since the penultimate round of 2010’s FIA GT3 Championship at Portimao had any Corvette – in this case a Z06R – won an SRO race.
Bingo’s repaired chassis is now scheduled to appear at Sugo, which hosts the first-ever standalone Japan Cup event on June 7-9. It will then compete at Fuji, Suzuka and Okayama where the new SRO GT PowerTour weekends also feature separate Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS races.
As well as contesting their own races, Japan Cup competitors will also benefit from separate test, practice and qualifying sessions during all SRO GT PowerTour weekends.
GT3 and GT4 will remain Japan Cup’s primary classes. However, GT2 and GTC cars are also eligible to compete.
As per the existing regulations, only drivers with a JAF license are eligible to contest Japan Cup’s GT3 Pro-Am and Am classes next season. But GT4 – which retains its Silver-Am and Am categories – will be opened up to all Asian drivers (subject to some criteria).
This restructuring also reflects a change to Fanatec GT Asia where only GT3 cars can compete from next season.