Unable to secure any championship points after a late puncture thwarted their efforts in Suzuka, the #777 crew were fortunate that the GT300 class leading Mercedes AMG GT3 powered crew also only collated just three championship points to leave the gap between crews to just 7.5 points going into this sixth round of the season, but then on the flip side to that – the gap between themselves and the chasing pack also reduced to just eleven points.

Presumably down to their DNF last time out, the success ballast within the #777 car has now been reduced from the 100kg to 65kg and with no alteration to the engines power output – unlike some which have again been adjusted.

This weekends visit to Sportsland Sugo will be another 300km affair with another GT300 entry of twenty-eight cars plus those from the more powerful GT500 class.

Over in Malaysia, the Thailand Super Series will be having the second quick fire visit to the Sepang International for its penultimate round to their 2025 where that will then conclude at Chang International Circuit at the end of October.

Within this race weekend, we again expect to see the #7 Team NZ Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 of Grahame Dowsett and Romain Leroux. Sadly for this Pro-Am pairing, just four points and a DNF last time out has seen them slip down the GT4 Drivers Championship for them to need nothing short of a minor miracle for them to achieve anything meaningful again this season.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

Having started the year well with a P3 class podium in the second race of the opening round at the Chang International, their Bangsaen adventure went even better as the dup secured a P3 finish in race one backed up with a P4 class finish in race two to now stand sixth within their Pro-Am Drivers Championship.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

Having already competed at Chang International, Bangsaen street circuit and a double header at Sepang International last time out in September, the crews best success came in Bangsaen where the scooped a P3 and P2 in class over that weekend in July before a P3 and P2 in class at the opening weekend at Sepang in early September.

Today has seen four Free Practice sessions take place with the #7 car finishing the day second fastest in class before Free Practice tomorrow, Qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday before the conclusion to the 2024 season on Sunday.

Instead of Setiawan Santosa driving another solo event, we have the team boss himself in Earl Bamber who will be there to support a kind of more familiar supporting name in Anderson Tanoto within their GT3 Pro-Am entry.

We last saw him behind the wheel of the Automatic Racing Invisible Glass AMR Vantage GT4 alongside Weiron Tan within the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge event at Laguna Seca in 2021 before returning the AMR Vantage GT3 to the streets of Macau in the supporting Greater Bay Area GT3 race last year. Maybe its all in preparation again for this years event?

Hopefully things will be less eventful for them this time around.

Photo credits – Team / series / Macau GP

Having Qualified third within their elected Pro-Am class, the #42 car suffered from multiple punctures as well as technical issues and race time penalties that otherwise blighted a decent run. Their perseverance paid off however as they eventually came home P14 overall but more importantly P3 in class.

Then over in Suzuka in Japan, their #8 GT World Challenge Asia solo race of Setiawan Santosa enjoyed the best weekend yet within the series fifth round of the season by claiming a P3 in GT3 Am double for his efforts.

Finally, the team also had dealings with the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 efforts of the #7 Team NZ as drivers Graham Dowsett and Ananthorn Tangniannatchi also delivered the goods within the GT4 class of the Thailand Super Series visit to Bangsaen.

Competing within the GT4 Pro class, the #7 car would come home for a podium winning double with a P3 after race 1 and P2 after race 2.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media