With slightly less than six months till the inaugural start of RACE123, and since the official announcement of the Sporting Regulations six weeks earlier, interest levels from race teams have risen dramatically. First on the long list of teams keen to compete for top honours is Bentley Team Absolute, having officially announced and confirmed their participation on 21st October 2016. To be held from the 20th till 22nd of April 2017 at the Korea International Circuit (KIC) in Yeongam Jeollanam-do South Korea, RACE123 promises to be an exciting and challenging endurance race for all.​

“Racing in Asia is growing bigger and better with every season and we are committed to moving forward and growing with it. We were seriously impressed with China GT last week, while both GT Asia and Asian Le Mans Series continues to be key championships globally. We are also entering Korea’s first endurance race, RACE123, at the Korea International Circuit in April.” said Brian Gush, Bentley’s Director of Motorsport.

Founded back in 2010, Absolute Racing has successfully developed into one of Asia’s leading motorsports organizations and actively competes in well-known racing series within Asia and the United States, such as GT Asia; the Asian Le Mans Series; Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and Pirelli World Challenge. Reorganized as Bentley Team Absolute in 2015, the organization was appointed as the sole motorsports organization managing Bentley’s Customer Racing in Asia and the United States a year later. Armed with an impressively built and maintained arsenal of Bentley Continental GT3 race cars and supported by a dedicated crew, the many distinguished drivers of Bentley Team Absolute such as Adderly Fong (Hong Kong), and Andrew Kim (Korea) have their sights set on the top podium step.

RACE123 is the first international long-distance endurance race to be held in Korea organized by a Korean company, and consists of 5 classes, namely: GT3, GTC, Sports Production, Touring Production 1 and Touring Production 2, covering a comprehensive variety of eligible cars depending on its class. As the race title hints, three or four drivers will attempt to cover a total distance of 1,230km (219 laps at KIC) in a single vehicle, which will push and test the very limits of both man and machine. Aside from the long yet exciting race time (approximately 9 hours), there will also be a wide variety of fringe events for spectators of all ages to enjoy as well. With grand total of US$500,000 prize money, RACE123 aspires to one day become a world-class endurance race series, similar to that of the ’24 Hours of Le Mans’.

Managing Director of J’s Consulting, Mr. Hongsik JEON asserted: “We are pleased to have the first official participation announcement from Bentley Team Absolute for RACE123 next spring. As the 2016 motorsport season is almost over, I feel that the overall interest in RACE123 is rising positively from both local and international teams. The Early Bird entry registration deadline is the 20th of December 2016, and I invite all interested race drivers and teams to participate! We will do our best to prepare for RACE123!