Weekend preview: Ferrari 296 on track in Japan, Malaysia and United States

The Long Beach circuit in California hosts the first Sprint Race of the IMSA Championship, with three Ferrari 296 GT3s on the grid. Along with the European series at Paul Ricard, the GT World Challenge Asia also kicks off, with five Ferraris competing at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. Three Prancing Horse cars will also race at the start of the Super GT Japan.

IMSA. After the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12H Sebring both valid for the Endurance Cup, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar championship offers the first Sprint Race of the season taking place this weekend on the California track of Long Beach. Three Ferrari 296 GT3S will compete in the GTD class in the 100-minute race, where pit strategy will be crucial. Official driver Daniel Serra teams up with Manny Franco in Conquest Racing number 34 and Brendan Iribe and Frederik Schandorff make up the crew for Inception Racing number 70, while Sheena Monk and Stevan McAleer share the wheel of Triarsi Competizione number 21. Free practice and qualifying are on Friday; the race will begin at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

GT World Challenge Asia. Thirty-three GT3 cars take to the track for the championship’s opening round, including the defending Am class champions David Tjiptobiantoro and Christian Colombo in Garage 75's number 75 car, ready to defend their title. The Japanese LMCorsa team’s entry, the 296 GT3 number 60 driven by Kei Nakanishi and Shigekazu Wakisaka appears in the same class. In the Silver Am category, Liu Hangcheng and Lorenzo Patrese of Winhere Harmony Racing are at the wheel of car number 55, while Yi Deng and Chen Welan drive the sister car number 96.

In the Pro Am category, Absolute Racing’s number 321, with Li Xuanyu and Lu Wanlong, is entered exclusively for the Malaysian leg.

After the free practice sessions, the first of six championship events will include qualifying sessions on Saturday, 12 April, from 10.25 a.m., followed by Race-1 at 2.15 p.m. The second race is on Sunday, 13 April, at 11.30 a.m.

Super GT. The championship kicks off at the Okayama International Circuit and will be contested over eight rounds at Japan’s top circuits. There will be three Ferrari 296 GT3s in the GT300 class. On the number 45 of Ponos Racing along with the confirmed Kei Cozzolino.

Yoshiaki Katayama and Roberto Merhi Muntan alternate in Velorex’s number six entry, while Carguy MKS Racing fields the number 7 Ferrari with Zak O’Sullivan and Rikuto Kobayashi.

All times are local.