The 2026 GT World Challenge (GTWC) Asia powered by AWS season heads to the streets of Beijing from 2–4 October, with Lu Wei carrying a 22-point Drivers’ Championship advantage into the penultimate event of the season.
Two one-hour races will form Rounds 9 and 10 around the 4.9km, 12-turn Beijing Street Circuit in E-Town. The temporary venue returns for its second GTWC Asia appearance after joining the calendar in 2025, while Shanghai will host the final two races later in October.
Lu arrives in Beijing on 106 points following a championship-changing weekend at Okayama. Huang Ruohan and Alessandro Ghiretti share second on 84 points with Anthony Liu, while Cheng Congfu and Yu Kuai sit only one point further back on 83. That leaves three crews separated by just one point behind the championship leader as the final four races begin.
Beijing also carries considerable significance for Lu after he lost the 2025 championship on countback at the same circuit. Twelve months later, he returns with an opportunity to become the first driver to secure GTWC Asia’s overall GT3 title before the final event of a season.
Lu returns to Beijing seeking championship redemption
Lu’s 2026 campaign has increasingly gathered momentum as the season has progressed. After opening the year among the leading contenders, his championship challenge accelerated during the Japanese rounds.
At Fuji, Lu and Laurin Heinrich overcame additional pit-stop time to secure victory in Race 2. The result delivered Lu’s record-breaking eighth overall GTWC Asia victory, moving him ahead of Anthony Liu as the most successful driver in the championship’s history.
That weekend also brought Lu considerably closer to then-leaders Huang and Ghiretti. The Absolute Racing pairing left Fuji on 80 points, with Lu just four behind on 76 and Liu another four back on 72. The championship margins after Fuji therefore set up an increasingly close battle heading into Okayama.
Okayama subsequently transformed the order. Lu finished fourth in the opening race and second on Sunday, taking his championship total to 106. Huang and Ghiretti endured a far more difficult weekend and collected only four points, leaving them tied with Liu on 84. Cheng and Yu also continued their rise and moved to 83. The standings after Round 4 at Okayama consequently left Lu with a 22-point advantage.
Beijing now offers an opportunity to turn that momentum into the championship. However, with 50 points available from the two races and another event still to follow in Shanghai, the title fight remains far from straightforward.
Hartog reunites with Lu’s championship fight
Lu will share Origine Motorsport’s No. 11 Porsche 911 GT3 R with Loek Hartog for the first time this weekend. The Dutchman replaces Heinrich alongside the championship leader and brings recent winning experience in GTWC Asia.
Hartog joined Anthony Liu at Mandalika earlier in the season and immediately made an impact. He secured Race 2 pole before controlling the opening stint, with Liu completing the victory after the pit-stop sequence. Their success capped a dominant Mandalika weekend for Phantom and returned Liu firmly to the championship battle.
Hartog now moves into the championship-leading Origine entry for Beijing. The pairing gives Lu another proven Gold-graded co-driver as he attempts to maximise a weekend that could potentially settle the overall title before Shanghai.
Origine’s second entry also carries championship significance. Liu Hangcheng and Wang Zhongwei will continue in the No. 22 Porsche and arrive as Am leaders, holding a 10-point advantage over Climax Racing’s Zhou Bi Huang and Setiawan Santoso.
Three crews separated by one point behind Lu
Although Lu has created breathing room at the head of the standings, the battle immediately behind him remains exceptionally tight.
Huang and Ghiretti share 84 points with Anthony Liu, while Cheng and Yu sit on 83. A single point therefore covers three separate crews fighting to become Lu’s closest challenger.
Huang and Ghiretti established themselves as the early championship benchmarks after winning at Sepang. Their consistency then allowed them to retain the lead through Mandalika, where they left with a 20-point advantage over Liu. Their championship lead after Round 2 looked increasingly secure before the Japanese portion of the season changed the picture.
The No. 911 Absolute Racing Porsche retains Huang and Ghiretti for Beijing, while Liu will share Phantom Global Racing’s No. 37 Porsche with Ayhancan Güven. Both combinations remain in Pro-Am and represent Lu’s closest direct rivals in the overall battle.
Cheng and Yu have taken a different route into championship contention. Their No. 16 FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom entry competes in Silver, but the pair have regularly challenged the Pro-Am crews for outright honours. They won Race 1 at Mandalika before repeating that result at Okayama, leaving them only 23 points behind Lu.
Yu’s performances have also placed him at the head of the SRO GT Academy standings, giving the Chinese driver two significant championship objectives during his home event.
Audi leads Teams’ Championship battle
The overall Drivers’ Championship represents only one of the major fights heading into Beijing, with Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom also attempting to defend its advantage in the Teams’ standings.
The squad produced an exceptional Okayama weekend as Cheng and Yu won Race 1 before Andrés Pato and Jaxon Evans completed an Audi sweep in Race 2. Those results moved the team ahead of Absolute Racing, while Origine Motorsport’s three-year run of Teams’ Championship victories came under increasing pressure.
Pato and Evans return in the No. 15 Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II at Beijing, while Cheng and Yu continue in the No. 16 Silver entry. The two-car line-up gives Audi opportunities to score heavily across both overall races.
Absolute Racing counters with three cars. Huang and Ghiretti lead its challenge in the No. 911 Porsche, with Li Kerong and Joel Sturm sharing the No. 918 Porsche. Sandy Stuvik and Akash Nandy complete the team’s entry in the Silver-class No. 29 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2.
Origine brings two Porsches, with Lu and Hartog chasing overall and Pro-Am honours while Liu Hangcheng and Wang Zhongwei defend the Am Championship lead. With four races remaining across Beijing and Shanghai, the Teams’ Championship remains open despite Audi’s advantage.
Silver-Am battle separated by 10 points
Brian Lee and Maxime Oosten lead the Silver-Am standings entering Beijing after a particularly strong Okayama weekend.
The GTO with KRC pairing carries a 10-point advantage over Liang Jiatong, with Oosten also remaining firmly involved in the SRO GT Academy contest. The No. 10 BMW M4 GT3 EVO therefore arrives with significant championship implications across two separate classifications.
Craft-Bamboo Racing will again field Dean Chen Yu Hao alongside Liang in the No. 77 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO. Climax Racing adds another Silver-Am Mercedes-AMG through Li Lichao and Elias Seppänen.
Seppänen also forms part of the SRO GT Academy field. The Finnish driver joins Oosten, Yu, Nandy, Liu Kaishun and Atsushi Miyake among the six Academy entrants confirmed on the Beijing entry list.
Origine and Climax continue close Am fight
The Am Championship carries the same 10-point margin as Silver-Am.
Liu Hangcheng and Wang Zhongwei lead for Origine Motorsport, while Zhou and Santoso remain their closest rivals in the No. 8 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO. The two pairings split the class victories at Okayama, ensuring neither could establish a decisive advantage ahead of the Chinese rounds.
Two further Am entries will join the contest in Beijing. HZO Fortis Racing by Absolute Racing fields Haziq Zairel Oh and Aaron Lim Say Joon in the No. 20 Porsche, while AMAC Motorsport returns with Andrew Macpherson and William Ben Porter in the No. 51 Porsche.
The No. 22 Origine Porsche also carries a China Cup entry, adding another potential title consideration for Liu and Wang as GTWC Asia reaches its home stretch.
Yu leads SRO GT Academy fight
Yu heads to Beijing with a 14-point lead over Oosten in the SRO GT Academy after his strong Okayama weekend.
The programme identifies GT World Challenge Asia’s leading young Silver driver, with the winner earning a fully funded seat at the following year’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. Six eligible drivers feature on the Beijing entry list.
Yu continues alongside Cheng in the No. 16 Audi, while Oosten shares the No. 10 BMW with Lee. Nandy lines up with Stuvik at Absolute Racing, Seppänen joins Li in the Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG, Liu Kaishun shares Harmony Racing’s No. 96 Ferrari with Takuro Shinohara, and Miyake partners Takayuki Aoki at Team 5ZIGEN.
The Academy formed another major storyline when the season began at Sepang, with several of the championship’s young Silver drivers balancing class ambitions against the season-long prize. The opening-round field included several drivers now fighting for the Academy title.
19 cars confirmed for Beijing
A 19-car field appears on the 28 September commercial entry list, spread across Pro-Am, Silver, Silver-Am and Am.
Pro-Am contains eight cars. Lu and Hartog headline Origine Motorsport’s No. 11 Porsche, with Pato and Evans in the No. 15 Audi and Hiroaki Nagai and Kazuto Kotaka in Porsche Center Okazaki’s No. 18 Porsche. Anthony Liu and Güven share the No. 37 Phantom Global Porsche, while Song Jiajun and Brendon Leitch continue in Harmony Racing’s No. 72 Ferrari. Ruan Cun Fan and Jesse Krohn represent Team KRC in the No. 89 BMW, with Absolute Racing completing the Pro-Am field through its No. 911 and No. 918 Porsches.
Four cars compete in Silver. Cheng and Yu return in the No. 16 Audi, while Stuvik and Nandy share Absolute Racing’s No. 29 Lamborghini. Harmony Racing fields Shinohara and Liu Kaishun in the No. 96 Ferrari 296 GT3, with Aoki and Miyake continuing aboard Team 5ZIGEN’s No. 500 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.
Silver-Am features Lee and Oosten’s BMW alongside two Mercedes-AMGs. Chen and Liang continue with Craft-Bamboo Racing, while Li and Seppänen represent Climax Racing.
The four-car Am contingent consists of Zhou and Santoso for Climax Racing, Oh and Lim for HZO Fortis Racing by Absolute Racing, Liu and Wang for Origine Motorsport and Macpherson and Porter for AMAC Motorsport. The full provisional Beijing entry list confirms all 19 entries.
Beijing enters its second GTWC Asia weekend
GTWC Asia first raced around Beijing’s E-Town street circuit in 2025, when Team 5ZIGEN and Harmony Racing shared the victories. Approximately 30,000 spectators attended the inaugural event, which also staged the championship-deciding drama between Lu and his title rivals.
The 4.9km circuit remains unchanged for 2026, but its place on the calendar has shifted. Rather than deciding the championship as the season finale, Beijing now hosts the penultimate event before GTWC Asia heads to Shanghai for Rounds 11 and 12.
That change creates the possibility of Lu settling unfinished business before the championship even reaches its final venue. His 22-point advantage gives him the strongest position among the overall contenders, but the fight behind remains extremely compressed. Huang and Ghiretti share second with Liu, while Cheng and Yu remain only one point behind them.
Lu therefore returns to the circuit where his 2025 championship challenge ended with the opportunity to write a very different conclusion. However, with the overall Drivers’ title, Teams’ Championship, Pro-Am, Silver-Am, Am and SRO GT Academy battles all still active, the streets of Beijing could reshape considerably more than one championship before the field moves on to Shanghai.
