Anstone Racing will become a full-season Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia entrant in 2019 after confirming Xu Wei and Naoki Yokomizo as its Pro-Am pairing.
The team, one of three so far announced from China, has entered the same Mercedes-AMG GT3 with which it contested last year’s round at Shanghai. That initial experience has now resulted in a full-time commitment to the continent’s biggest multi-manufacturer GT championship.
Wei and Yokomizo also drove the team’s Mercedes-AMG at Shanghai last season after first pairing up at the preceding Fuji round with CarGuy Racing. Incidentally, it was with the same Japanese squad that Yokomizo – a regular in his native Super GT series – claimed his only Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia victory to date at Fuji in 2017.
Meanwhile, his Am co-driver Wei moves across from the Asian Le Mans Series where he raced Tianshi Racing Team’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 in 2018/19. Prior to that he contested the China GT Championship and won 2015’s Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific Trofeo Pirelli Am title.
“I feel very lucky to be participating in Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia in 2019,” said Wei. “I hope the championship’s high level of competition will help me to improve – it’s certainly a great opportunity to learn from other drivers. Standing on the podium will represent a significant achievement so I’m really looking forward to comparing myself against the others.”
Anstone Racing joins Chinese counterparts JR-M and Wei’s previous team, TSRT, on 2019’s full-season entry list. The increasing level of interest amongst Chinese teams and drivers has justified SRO Motorsports Group’s decision to broadcast dedicated coverage with Mandarin commentary across the country’s biggest streaming platforms. Indeed, all Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia, Europe and America races will be shown live on the likes of YouKu, Panda TV, Huya, SMG and DouYu this season.
Seven manufacturers are already confirmed for Asia’s opening round, which takes place at Sepang in Malaysia on April 6/7