Akash Nandy and Sandy Stuvik could not translate their qualifying speed into a race podium finish this weekend, as GT World Challenge Asia by AWS raced at the Okayama International Circuit in Japan.
For the fourth round of the 2026 season, Sandy Stuvik moved up from reserve driver to the race seat to partner Akash Nandy in his Silver Cup campaign. The Thai driver marked his GT World Challenge Asia return in style, putting the No. 29 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 on pole position for the opening race of the weekend.
Starting from pole position, Sandy Stuvik led the race until sudden showers arrived, triggering a long Full Course Yellow period to recover cars from the gravel. The Thai driver was among the first to pit, switching to wet tyres. Unfortunately, the rain did not persist, and Akash Nandy was forced into an extra pit stop to revert to slicks.
The Malaysian driver made the best of the situation, finishing P10 overall and fourth in the Silver Cup class.
Unfortunately, Sunday's second race had little story to tell, as it was cut short after Akash Nandy became one of the victims of the first-lap chaos.
"It's a frustrating end to a weekend where we showed a lot of potential," said Akash Nandy. "We started Race 1 from pole and had the pace to fight for the overall win, but unfortunately the strategy didn't work in our favour. In Race 2, we were taken out on the opening lap before we had a chance to show what we could do."
"Sandy and I worked really well together and showed how strong we can be as a pairing. It's tough to see so much hard work go unrewarded, but we'll keep pushing," added Akash Nandy, who now lies fourth in the Silver Cup standings. "A big thank you to everyone at Absolute Racing for their endless effort and to Provident for their continued support and belief in us."
Team-mate Sandy Stuvik added: "We leave Okayama with a bittersweet feeling. Over the weekend I believe Akash and I demonstrated great pace and consistency, however we were unable to convert that into the result we deserved. As a team, we made an error which unfortunately cost us the win in Race 1. Race 2 was unfortunate due to the Lap 1 incident which ended the race for multiple cars, ours included. Overall, it was a tough weekend which set us back considerably in the points, and now the focus is simply to gain back what we have lost. We have the speed to do so — all we need now is a touch of luck!"
With two races remaining, GT World Challenge Asia moves next to the Beijing E-Town Street Circuit from 2 to 4 October, one of the season's highlights.
