The FIA World Endurance Championship is ready for the Japanese round of the World Championship for sportscars.
26 car will start the weekend, and there are several changes in the driver line-ups compared to the previous race at COTA.
Anthony Davidson is back in Toyota Gazoo Racing #8, making the hometown heroes back to the usual line-up, that they started the season with.
In the LMP2 category we have Alex Lynn stepping out of the G-Drive Racing #26 seat, and will be replaced by James Rossiter. Rossiter was part of Bykolles Racing Team in the early rounds this year, but they didn’t join the FIA WEC for the non-European rounds. Rossiter knows the Japanese track very well, since his other job is being factory driver for Lexus in the Super GT championship, where the TOM’s team often is testing on that particular track.
This is not the first time this season that Lynn is missing in the #26. He wasn’t in the car at Nürburgring either, since he had to travel to New York for DS Virgin Racing in Formula E. If it’s DS Virgin or BMW who has prevented Lynn from going this time is unknown, but Lynn has been driving for BMW several times this year in a GT3 car. BMW will be active in both VLN and the DTM finale this weekend, so might need an extra driver to fill up all their seats.
Aston Martin Racing #97 in GTE Pro category has said goodbye to Daniel Serra for now. Right after the race at Le Mans it was announced that he would do three more rounds – and if the team had been leading the Championship by now, he would most likely still had been a part of the line-up for the rest of the season. But he, alongside teammates Darren Turner and Jonny Adam, only sits 7th in the Championship. But they will finish the season off as a pair.
Mike Wainwright will miss the Fuji race in the Gulf Racing UK #86 Porsche in the GTE Am category. Instead we will have Mike Hedlund as the bronze rated driver in the car. Hedlund has a big knowledge of driving Porsche cars in the US, and was part of the Proton Competition team at Le Mans this year. He will join regular drivers, Ben Barker and Nick Foster.
Dempsey-Proton Racing #77 will have a slightly different look this weekend. October month is worldwide cancer awareness month and in a corporation with Pink Ribbon Foundation, the normally black and blue car has changed its colours to pink, and a big pink ribbon on the side of the car.
Round 7 of this years FIA World Endurance Championship will start this Sunday morning at 04.00 CET.
