King to Make GT300 Debut at Fuji; Rasmussen to Return

Photo: Asian Le Mans Series

Harry King will make his SUPER GT debut in next week’s second round of the season at Fuji Speedway for Seven x Seven Racing, while Oliver Rasmussen is also set for his first race appearance of the year following his recovery from injury.

A 43-car entry list released for the three-hour Golden Week classic shows King registered as the third driver for the No. 666 Porsche 911 GT3 R alongside Seven x Seven’s two full-season regulars, Kiyoto Fujinami and Tsubasa Kondo.

It follows an appearance for the British driver, whose main program this year is in GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, in last month’s official Fuji test.

The three-hour timed format, which requires two pit stops, allows teams to cycle through all three registered drivers, although there is no obligation to do so.

Rasmussen meanwhile is set to race the No. 31 apr Lexus LC500h for the first time this year alongside Miki Koyama and Yuki Nemoto, who raced as a duo in the opening round of the season at Okayama this month in his absence.

The Danish driver was ruled out of the curtain-raiser after he suffered a fractured thoracic vertebra in a Super Formula crash at Suzuka in early March.

While the injury, which required him to undergo surgery, forced Rasmussen to miss both official tests, he did drive the LC500h in a GT Entrants’ (GTE) test at February and got further mileage under his belt later that month at Okayama.

Other GT300 teams to have registered third drivers for the Fuji round include Inging, which has Kazuhisa Urabe listed alongside regulars Hibiki Taira and Yuui Tsutsumi, with Urabe having passed his rookie test last week in a private session at Okayama.

Toyota junior prospect Yuki Sano is listed as the third driver in the Shade Racing Toyota GR86 GT, while Ryo Ogawa fulfils the same role in the No. 30 apr Toyota and Reimei Ito does so in the non-hybrid LM Corsa Lexus LC500.

Tomei Sports meanwhile has Hironobu Shimizu listed together with Takayuki Aoki and Rin Arakawa in its Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

The entry list confirms the absence of Joao Paulo de Oliveira due to a clashing Stock Car Pro Series commitment in Brazil, with Yu Kanamaru set to make his SUPER GT debut alongside Kohei Hirate in the Kondo Racing Nissan GT300 car.

In GT500, the only change from the full-season entry is the addition of Toyota GT500 reserve driver Kazuto Kotaka to the lineup for the No. 19 WedsSport Bandoh Toyota GR Supra alongside Yuji Kunimoto and Sena Sakaguchi.

Kotaka gained further experience of the car in private testing at Sepang in January, having made his first outing in GT500 machinery at the same test last year.