Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom will again enter a pair of R8 LMS GT3s in this year’s GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS campaign.
The hugely experienced GT racer and man of many names, Andrés Pato, joins GT World Australia runner-up Jaxon Evans in a Pro-Am entry, while the existing partnership of Yu Kuai and Cheng Congfu will attempt to defend their Silver class title.
“Jaxon Evans, Andrés Pato and the Audi R8 LMS GT3 is a very exciting combination. Both drivers are race winners with the R8 LMS and should prove to be a potent force this year,” said Head of Audi Sport customer racing Asia, Alexander Blackie. “Together with the previously-announced GT World Challenge Asia line-up of Cheng Congfu and Yu Kuai we have a nicely balanced squad ready to challenge for the overall title in the region’s leading GT3 series.”
Evans is set for his first full GT World Challenge Asia campaign alongside former FIA WEC team-mate Pato, who has previously raced under the names Andre Canard and Andrew Haryanto.
FIA Gold-ranked Jaxon began his career in go karts in Australia and his native New Zealand, graduating to sportscars in 2015. He took his first championship title in an Australian one-make sportscar series in 2018, catapulting his talents into the spotlight, earning him a place on a manufacturer junior programme, and resulting in a move to European competition the following season.
Jaxon replicated his one-make success in Europe, alongside stints in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, IMSA SportsCar Challenge and the continent’s most iconic endurance races. A highlight of his glittering career thus far was a third place finish in the 2021 FIA WEC LMGTE Am standings. Proving masterful in a variety of GT3 marques, Jaxon took an Audi R8 LMS GT3 to back-to-back wins in the 2017 CAMS Australian GT Endurance Championship.
No stranger to the GT World Challenge, Jaxon finished second in the Pro-Am standings in the 2025 Australian edition, and contested four races in the Asian series in 2024.
An experienced Audi campaigner and accomplished Am driver, Pato has proven a formidable powerhouse at the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS GT3; from winning the 2018 Audi Sport R8 LMS Cup title, to victory the 2023 Sepang 12 Hours. Successful in sprint, endurance and – like his new team-mate Jaxon – one-make competition, the Indonesian finished sixth in the 2023 GT World Challenge Asia Pro-Am championship alongside this season’s Audi Team Asia Team Phantom stablemate Yu Kuai.
The first of GT World Challenge Asia’s six events take place at Sepang on April 4-5.