Mortara, Fisichella Join 34-Car Entry for Mandalika

Photo: GT World Challenge Asia

GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS has confirmed a capacity 34-car field for its inaugural visit to Mandalika next weekend, with Edoardo Mortara and Giancarlo Fisichella two notable additions to the field for the Indonesian event.

Revealed on Tuesday, the entry list comprises the full 33-car full season entry, plus the additional Ferrari 296 GT3 entered by Absolute Corse for Thierry Vermeulen and Anderson Tanoto, as revealed by the team last week.

Porsche Center Okazaki will be back to full strength as the No. 18 car shared by Hiroaki Nagai and Kazuto Kotaka makes it first of three planned outings this season after skipping the opening round of the season at Sepang earlier this month.

Absolute Corse’s No. 19 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 is also set for its first outing of the season, having been a late withdrawal from the Sepang round, with factory star Mortara sharing driving duties with local driver Andrea Anatra.

Elsewhere, most teams are fielding the same driver lineups as they did at Sepang, with a handful of exceptions.

The most notable of these is the early arrival of ex-Formula 1 racer Fisichella, who will share the LM Corsa Ferrari 296 GT3 with Shigekazu Wakisaka, that car moving from the Am class to the Pro-Am division as a result.

It comes as Fisichella prepares to tackle the Suzuka 1000km with the team later in the year.

Another change concerns Johor Motorsports Racing, which, as previously reported by Sportscar365, is calling on Ben Green to deputize for the absent Alexander Sims at the wheel of its No. 99 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Alessio Picariello will make his first outing of the season sharing the No. 4 Origine Porsche 911 GT3 R with Lu Wei, taking over the seat occupied by Bastian Buus in Sepang.

Finally, Dutchman Daan Arrow replaces Dominic Ang in the lineup for the Vollgas Motorsports Porsche.

Official practice at Mandalika begins on Friday, with pre-qualifying taking place later that day, with qualifying proper taking place on Saturday ahead of the opening race at 2:30 p.m. local time (3:30 a.m. EDT).

The second race will take place on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. EDT).