The 2022 season of the Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific Trofeo Pirelli kicks off this weekend with Round 1 of the series taking place at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan, where thirteen 488 Challenge Evo cars will compete in the Prancing Horse’s one-make series. Excitement is building amongst the drivers to push themselves to the limit to showcase the best of their skills for what is set to be a thrilling round of races as they join the GT World Challenge Asia weekend.
The calendar for the Asia Pacific series is made up of six rounds, travelling to renowned racetracks including here in Japan at Suzuka Circuit, and the following weekend in Fuji Speedway, then round 3 in Mugello in October and at Imola in Italy for round 4 during Finali Mondiali before finishing the last 2 rounds in Dubai in January and Abu Dhabi in February 2023. In the Trofeo Pirelli AM class, Yudai Uchida and Nobuhiro Imada, both from Rosso Scuderia, will definitely be fighting tooth and nail to take the top step on the podium. In the Coppa Shell, 2019 APAC champion Andrew Moon (FMK) is the clear favourite. However, he will have to contend with the experienced Kazuyuki Yamaguchi of Cornes Osaka and Kuninari Mori of Auto Speciale who have 4 and 3 seasons respectively under their belt. In the Coppa Shell Am, it will be an open field of gentlemen drivers at the wheel of the 488 Challenge Evo with 4 drivers making their debut in the APAC series together with stalwarts of the series Atsushi Iritani of Cornes Osaka and Ryuichi Kunihiro of M Auto.
Schedule. The Challenge drivers will undertake two rounds of practice sessions on Friday, and qualifying sessions taking place on Saturday and Sunday, with the first race on Saturday 16th July at 3:25 PM local time and the second race on Sunday 17th July also at 3:25 PM local time.