GT World Challenge Asia: Absolute Racing wins valuable points and podium

After a tough fight in Buriram, Absolute Racing Team won another group trophy...

The third round of the 2025 GT World Challenge Asia Cup was successfully concluded in Buriram, Thailand this weekend. The four cars of Absolute Racing Team fought fiercely and completed two rounds of the race in a difficult environment with changeable weather and high pressure. Despite the unfavorable factors such as accidents, time penalties and boundary penalties during the race, the team still relied on the strong will of the drivers and the full support of the entire team. In the end, the No. 29 car team successfully climbed onto the Silver-Am group podium in the second round, winning glory for this weekend's fierce battle.

In the practice session on Friday, Absolute Racing Team quickly got into the state and effectively adapted to the Buriram track, which is a mixture of high speed and technical corners. The No. 29 Lamborghini driven by Huang Ruohan ran the fastest lap in the gentleman driver test, making a good start for the race week. The engineering team has also made progress in the tuning of the four cars.

This weekend's race will have very strict penalties for track boundaries, especially at Turns 1, 3, 4, 8 and 12, which will be closely watched by the arbitration committee.

In the qualifying stage held at noon on Saturday, all four cars showed their competitive strength, but they were affected by the track boundary and lost key lap times. Although the No. 29 car driven by Huang Ruohan was affected by the track boundary restrictions in the first qualifying session, it still ran out of the tenth place in the field and the second in the Silver-Am category. The No. 19 car driven by Henk Kiks was affected by the track traffic and track boundary restrictions and failed to achieve ideal results. It finally ranked 29th in the field and 13th in the Pro-Am.

The No. 911 B-Quik Porsche team, led by Wang Zhongwei, was also affected by the harsh penalty of track boundary restrictions, and one of the fastest laps was deleted. In the end, it ranked 15th in the field and 8th in Pro-Am in qualifying. Li Xuanyu competed in the No. 321 Porsche. In the fiercely competitive Silver-Am group, Li Xuanyu finally finished the first qualifying competition with the 20th place in the whole field and the fifth place in the Silver-Am group.

After a short break, the second qualifying competition, which was played by professional drivers, entered. Lamborghini official driver Loris Spinelli represented the Absolute Team and successfully won the 11th place in the whole field and the eighth place in the Pro-Am group. Akash Nandy also showed good speed and followed closely with only a slight gap, ranking fourth in the Silver-Am group, laying a solid foundation for the No. 29 group.

In the Porsche camp, experienced Patrick Pilet brought the No. 911 car back to the 18th place on the grid; while Lu Wenlong's performance on the No. 321 car was resilient, but he touched the track boundary several times, affecting his lap time, and finally started from the 24th place on the grid.

The first round of the race in the afternoon was in a melee from the start. The No. 29 car lost its position in the first corner due to an accident with the car in front. Huang Ruohan quickly stabilized the rhythm and started an offensive and defensive battle with the competitors in the group. But just before the maintenance area window was about to open, Huang Ruohan was punished by the race committee for passing through the maintenance area once due to the accumulation of track boundary violations. After completing the penalty, Huang Ruohan's ranking dropped to 22nd in the whole field. The team also adjusted its strategy accordingly, extending Huang Ruohan's driving time to maximize the pursuit space. After half of the race, Huang Ruohan handed the car to his teammate in eighth place. After Akash Nandy took over, he maintained the pace, remained in the top 15 of the field, and was in a favorable position to compete for the podium in the group. In the second half of the race, the race was dispatched with yellow flags for the whole field because the faulty vehicles needed to be cleared, and finally switched to the safety car stage, which also rekindled Nandy's hope of hitting the podium in the group. Unfortunately, however, in the final stage of the race, two additional penalties caused the performance of this team that had the strength to compete for the championship to decline sharply, and finally only won the 24th place in the whole field.

The No. 19 team staged a counterattack in the first round. Henk Kiks started from the 29th position and then steadily advanced. After the maintenance window opened, he quickly entered the pits to change drivers with good strategy execution. Loris Spinelli quickly accelerated after entering the field and showed superb car control ability in several rounds of fierce battles. The two worked together to help the team rush to the eighth place in the field and the fifth place in the Pro-Am category, earning important points.

The No. 911 car showed great explosive power in this race. Wang Zhongwei avoided risks in the early stages of the race where accidents occurred frequently and firmly held the front. After handing over the baton, Patrick Pilet quickly entered the state and once rushed to fourth place in the whole field and second in the group. However, due to excessive number of times exceeding the track limit, the race committee added a 33-second penalty in the last lap, missing the possibility of the first podium of the season, and the overall ranking also dropped to 18th. The No. 321 team was affected by the penalty caused by tire blowouts and violations of the track boundary, and finally ranked 26th in the field and ninth in Silver-Am.

In the second round of the race on Sunday, the No. 29 team made a comeback. Although Akash Nandy suffered a slight scratch at the start, he still managed to hold his position and steadily advance. After handing over the baton, Huang Ruohan continued the offensive and completed several key overtakings in the latter part of the race, and finally helped the team return to the group podium, drawing a positive footnote for this weekend with a strong performance.

At the same time, the No. 19 car group continued to show stable performance at home. Loris Spinelli maintained a strong offensive momentum from the start of the race and was in the top ten group all the way. In order to extend his driving time, the team delayed the pit stop until the end of the pit window, and then Henk Kiks completed the rest of the race and finally finished steadily, winning the eighth place in the Pro-Am category.

The Porsche car team suffered a major disadvantage in the second round. The No. 911 car encountered a collision with the opponent from behind at Turn 1 of the first lap. Patrick Pilet's car was hit by another car again after losing control, and finally withdrew from the second round of competition.

The No. 321 car also experienced a rigorous race schedule. Li Xuanyu and Lu Wenlong were punished for passing through the maintenance area due to exceeding the track boundary limit. The results did not meet expectations, and finally finished ninth in the group again.

Although this weekend's race was full of challenges and regrets, the Absolute Racing Team still showed strong strength in overall rhythm and team execution. The lap performance of the four teams proved that the team's efforts are gradually turning into results. Next, the team will regroup, take the experience and lessons of Buriram, and go all out to face the next two consecutive races in Japan, and continue to attack the podium.

This week's results

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