The successful X Works team is the first Audi customer squad announced for the GT World Challenge Asia 2020 season, with privateer Philip Tang named as the first of the two drivers. The team will enter an Audi R8 LMS GT3 in the GT3 Pro-Am category of the region’s biggest multi-marque GT series.
“The team behind X Works has a very strong history with Audi in Asia, with championship-winning pedigree,” said Martin Kuehl, Director of Audi Sport customer racing Asia. “Philip Tang has had a great season with the team this year, winning the Motegi round of the Super Taikyu Series and growing impressively as a driver. We look forward to the team’s assault on GT World Challenge Asia in 2020.”
“I am very glad and delighted to be able to announce my participation with X Works in the GT World Challenge Asia for 2020,” said Philip Tang. “I feel very confident to join the championship as a full season entry in 2020. In the past I enjoyed driving the Audi R8 LMS and therefore I am very happy to drive the updated version in 2020. Coming from multi-class racing and heading into a GT-only race is something I am looking forward to and I hope to catch up quickly with the other quick guys around me.”
Established in 2018 by inaugural Audi Sport R8 LMS Cup champion Marchy Lee, X Works has quickly earned a reputation as one of the most professional squads in Asian motorsport. Successfully contesting the Japanese Super Taikyu Series this season, Philip Tang, Shaun Thong and Smart Tse powered the team’s Audi R8 LMS to victory in the 5 Hours of Motegi earlier this year. Also this year, X Works became the first Chinese team to contest Japan’s Super GT Series’ GT300 class.
The GT World Challenge Asia heads into its fourth season now firmly established as the strongest multi-marque GT championship in the region, having attracted an average of 30+ cars each year since its launch at the start of 2017. Five rounds of two, one-hour races in Malaysia, Thailand, Japan – at both Fuji and Suzuka – and Shanghai, will be followed for the first time by the season-closing Shanghai 888 three-hour endurance race in October. The finale will combine pitstop strategy with up to 100 minutes of driving time per driver (two per car), with double points also on offer.
Philip Tang’s results in the GT World Challenge Asia 2020 will count towards the newly-announced Audi Sport Asia Trophy, a competition open to all FIA bronze-ranked Audi drivers competing across the region’s championship and series. Full details regarding the Audi Sport Asia trophy will be announced shortly.
The GT World Challenge Asia gets underway on March 28-29 at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit. Further Audi Sport customer racing Asia announcements will follow in the coming weeks.
Source. Audi
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