Intercontinental GT Challenge championship rivals Augusto Farfus and Kelvin van der Linde will contest the upcoming Suzuka 1000km in separate Team WRT BMWs.
The Belgian squad is an IGTC regular and won the season opener at Bathurst but was a notable absentee from the provisional Suzuka entry list issued on July 18. However, it has now confirmed that two of its factory M4 GT3 Evos and BMW works crews will contest the Summer Endurance Race – an event it won with Audi and Van der Linde during its last running in 2019.
Two points separate the South African from championship leader Farfus who claimed pole position for BMW at Suzuka six years ago. The pair won together at Bathurst and the Nürburgring – latterly with ROWE Racing – before finishing fourth and fifth in IGTC’s classification at Spa to leave them all-but locked together out front.
Farfus shares the #31 entry with Dan Harper and Max Hesse, while Van der Linde is joined in #32 by fellow Nürburgring winner Raffaele Marciello and reigning IGTC drivers’ champion Charles Weerts. Marciello – who was victorious at Suzuka in 2018, albeit with GruppeM and Mercedes-AMG – returns there seven points off top spot but only able to match Van der Linde’s haul.
WRT’s entries bring the total number of BMWs to three. GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS frontrunners Team KRC will be amongst the favourites for Silver class honours but could also contribute to their manufacturers’ Intercontinental points tally if either of the factory cars falter.
As well as leading the drivers’ standings, BMW are currently 14 points clear of reigning champions Porsche in the manufacturers’ ranking ahead of the penultimate round. Mercedes-AMG and Ferrari complete IGTC’s list of registered marques.
The Suzuka 1000km takes place on September 12-14. Tickets are available now at suzukacircuit.jp.
