Porsche enters extra car with Craft-Bamboo for Suzuka 10 Hours GT race

Craft-Bamboo Racing will enter a 911 GT3-R with a line-up of three works drivers in the Japanese fixture on August 26 alongside the Manthey Racing-run factory entry contesting all four rounds of the IGTC.

The deal is an expansion of Hong Kong-based Craft-Bamboo team's relationship with Porsche Motorsport as its Asia-Pacfic region technical partner, which has already included assaults with factory drivers on last year's FIA GT World Cup at Macau and this season's Bathurst 12 Hour IGTS opener.

The drivers for the additional entry have yet to be confirmed by the team, which ran Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre at Bathurst in February.

Romain Dumas, Frederic Makowiecki and Dirk Werner make up the line-up in the Manthey car.

Craft-Bamboo director Darryl O'Young said: "Our first IGTC race was the Bathurst 12 Hour earlier this year, where we had a shot for the win up to the final 20 minutes.

"It was a bittersweet end for us there, but it only motivated us more to go for the win in Suzuka.

"We have seen good performance from the Porsche 911 GT3-R in past races at Suzuka, so we have high expectations to compete at the front of the field again."

The Craft-Bamboo entry is the latest addition to a growing roster of factory or works-supported entries for the inaugural Suzuka 10 Hours, which replaces the traditional 1000km round of the Super GT Series on the circuit's calendar.

Full-season IGTS participants M-Sport and Strakka Racing will respectively field a pair of Bentley Continental GT3s and Mercedes-AMG GT3s.

Reigning Blancpain GT Series champion team Grasser will enter a solo Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Honda is represented by factory-supported NSX GT3s from Modulo Drago Corse and Honda Team Motul while KCMG, Nissan's representative in the Blancpain GT Series Asia, will field a pair of 2018-spec GT-R NISMO GT3s.

Audi had yet to confirm which team will lead its attack on the Suzuka enduro, but it is expected to be the Belgian WRT squad that won at Bathurst.

WRT team boss Vincent Vosse has confirmed his intention to take part at Suzuka with one or two Audi R8 LMS GT3s.

Super GT Series regular Hitotsuyama will also run an R8 in the 10 Hours.