2025 GT World Challenge Asia: Audi’s mid-season race begins at the foot of Mount Fuji

AWS presents GT World Challenge Asia Silver category leaders Cheng Congfu and Yu Kuai will lead three Audi teams to compete at Fuji International Speedway from July 11 to 13 to start the second half of the 2025 season. In addition to this pair from FAW Audi Phantom Team, German driver Markus Winkelhock, who has extensive Audi racing experience, will compete with Chinese driver Heno for the first time in the Pro-Am category. Uno Racing will send young FIA-certified silver drivers Rio and Tang Weifeng to drive the third second-generation Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II car.

"In the last GT World Challenge Asia Cup Buriram, Thailand, we spent a wonderful weekend on the track. The outstanding performance of Yu Kuai and Cheng Congfu, who won the overall championship, rekindled the hope of competing for the annual driver championship." Alexander Bo, head of Audi Sport (Asia) customer racing department Blackie said, "But in this series, consistency is crucial. In the next Fuji station, they must perform at the top level again to maintain their championship momentum in the remaining races. I sincerely wish our customer teams and drivers all the best in the upcoming race weekend."

Of the 12 races that will determine the 2025 season driver championship, six races have been completed. Cheng Congfu and 24-year-old Yu Kuai lead the Silver category standings with a 29-point advantage. They drove the second-generation Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II car to win one overall championship, three group championships and two group podiums.

This powerful team from FAW Audi Phantom Racing currently ranks fourth in the GT3 driver standings, only 18 points behind the leader. They also lead the China Cup standings by 6 points. Coming to Fuji, they will continue to challenge for three annual championship titles.

Audi star driver Markus Winkelhock had bad luck at the beginning of the season, only winning one in Thailand in June. Pro-Am podium, he is looking forward to the remaining 6 races. Winkelhock will partner with Chinese driver Heno to compete in the Japanese Grand Prix. Both drivers are very familiar with this legendary track located at the foot of Mount Fuji at 3,776 meters, with a total length of 4.563 kilometers and 16 corners. Winkelhock will do his best to catch up with the points gap in this double race weekend to make up for the regret of not being able to score points at the Mandalika Circuit in Indonesia in May.

Uno Racing's Silver Class Rio After winning their first class victory at the Buriram International Circuit in Thailand, Rio and Tang Weifeng are returning to the Silver class championship. Currently ranked fourth in the Silver class, they experienced two regretful retirements that affected their points, but two class podiums and a class victory still keep their hopes of winning. In the China Cup standings, Rio and Tang Weifeng are currently ranked fifth, and they also have the strength to challenge the annual championship title.

The Fuji race weekend will start with a 1-hour free practice, pre-qualifying and practice for bronze-level drivers on July 11 (Friday). Two 15-minute qualifying sessions will start at 08:40 on July 12 (Saturday), followed by the first 60-minute + lead race at 13:00, and the second race will start at 14:05 on July 13 (Sunday) (all times are UTC+09:00).