GTWC Asia Origine Motorsport Sepang Grand Prix on Sunday

On April 13, the 2025 season opener of the GT World Challenge Asia Cup (GTWC Asia) was successfully concluded at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia. Origine Motorsport's original force car persevered in the arduous challenge of the second round of the race on Sunday. The No. 87 team broke through the siege in the sprint at the end of the race. Yuan Bo and Ye Hongli worked together to get fifth place in the whole field and third place in the Pro-Am category!

The No. 4 team, which originally had a chance to win the championship, missed a good opportunity due to a late penalty. Lv Wei and Bastian Buus finally took back the tenth place in the whole field. The No. 86 car shared by Li Kerong and Anders Fjordbach was penalized for insufficient stop time and missed the podium of the Silver-Am category.

At the beginning of the race, Bastian Buus, who started from the sixth place, completed an excellent start, and the No. 4 car group was promoted to the fifth place of the whole field. The starting driver of the No. 87 car group, Ye Hongli, maintained a steady performance and kept the seventh place of the whole field. Anders Fjordbach, who drove the No. 86 car, also performed steadily and ranked seventh in the Silver-Am category.

15 minutes into the race, Anders Fjordbach completed two consecutive overtakings with excellent rhythm, rising to 17th place and also ranked sixth in the Silver-Am category. As the car in front had a straight-line speed advantage, Bastian Buus and Ye Hongli, who were in fifth and fourth places, found it difficult to further improve their rankings. The two drivers chose to maintain their rhythm and wait for the opportunity to overtake.

The subsequent race was uneventful. After the pit stop window opened, Buus, Ye Hongli and Fjordbach, three professional drivers, continued to stay on the track, aiming for a better track position.

At the end of the pit stop window, the No. 87 team was the first to complete the driver change, and Yuan Bo took over the car from Ye Hongli. Then Lv Wei and Li Kerong also entered the cockpit to start the second half of the game. The No. 4 team was promoted to the third place after leaving the pit, and the No. 86 team was ranked ninth. The No. 87 team, which won the championship in the first round, had to accept a 15-second "winning overtime" during the pit stop, losing a place.

Due to the track accident, the race was full of yellow flags in the second half, which also reduced the time for each team to chase forward. However, the subsequent safety car also allowed the team to narrow the gap with the opponent in front.

After the race restarted, Lv Wei, who was in third place, began to challenge the car in front and overtook cleanly on the inside of Turn 9, coming second in the whole race. Lv Wei then continued to increase the power, and the No. 4 car became the fastest car on the field in the second half of the race, greatly approaching the opponent in front. The No. 86 car team encountered trouble at this time. The race committee gave the team a 1-second stoppage penalty for not reaching the minimum time limit for pit stops.

Yuan Bo continued his strong speed advantage and led the No. 87 car back to the top ten of the field. At the same time, he continued to advance. Lu Wei reduced the gap with the leading car team to less than 1 second in the last 10 minutes of the race. However, the No. 4 car collided with the car in front when trying to attack at Turn 2, and the team was penalized to pass through the maintenance area and lost a place.

In the final stage of the race, Yuan Bo went all out and surpassed several cars in succession. In the end, the No. 87 car team finished fifth overall and third in the Pro-Am category. Ye Hongli and Yuan Bo once again won the podium in the category.

After receiving the penalty, the No. 4 car team fell out of the top ten, but Lv Wei did not give up. This powerful gentleman driver sprinted with all his strength and returned to the top ten in the last lap, and won points together with Bastian Buus. The No. 86 car crossed the finish line in seventh place in the Silver-Am category. Li Kerong and Anders Fjordbach completed the journey of the Sepang race in Malaysia with a steady performance.

Origine Motorsport had a mixed race weekend in Sepang this weekend. The team currently ranks second in the team standings with 36 points. From May 9 to 11, the second stop of GTWC Asia will be held at the Mandalika Circuit in Indonesia. For this new track on the calendar, the team will optimize the car tuning during the off-season, and the drivers will also fully conduct simulator training to make full preparations for the Mandalika Station.