On Monday, the GT Association (GTA), promoter of the Autobacs Super GT Series, released the entry list for the fourth round of the 2018, the Chang Super GT Race, held at Buriram United (Chang) International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand.

Super GT’s annual visit to the Asian kingdom will feature the smallest entry list – 38 cars in total – including the addition of a local wildcard entry, est Cola with AAS Motorsports, in the GT300 class.

Kazuki Nakajima will receive a heroes’ welcome back to Super GT following his breakthrough victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans this past weekend. And he’s not the only big name on the Lexus roster.

Felix Rosenqvist is back after missing the Suzuka GT 300km Fan Festival due to his commitments in the FIA Formula E Championship. While Rosenqvist has sadly fallen out of contention for the Formula E title, he’s still able to win the GT500 title with Lexus Team Wako’s LeMans and co-driver Kazuya Oshima.

The top three cars in the championship will all be carrying “Stage 1” fuel flow restrictors (91.8 kg/hr): The #100 Raybrig NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Jenson Button), the #23 Motul Autech GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli), and the #1 KeePer TOM’s LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy), each carrying 47, 45, and 35 kilograms of physical ballast, respectively.

The car carrying the most physical weight is the #8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Takuya Izawa), with a 48 kilogram handicap.

arto Panther Team Thailand, who compete full-time in Super GT, will be joined this round by the local wildcard entry, est Cola with AAS Motorsports, who are fielding the lone Bentley Continental GT3 on the grid – the same that the team uses in the GT Asia Series. They will also have one other ace up their sleeve: They’re the only GT300 team running with Michelin tyres.

AAS Motorsports pulled off a stunning upset as a local wildcard in the inaugural race at Buriram in 2014, taking pole position and leading until a late puncture put their Porsche 911 GT3-R out of contention for the victory.

Their drivers are 26-year-old Maxime Jousse, who won the 2015 Porsche Carrera Cup France, and finished runner-up in the 2016 Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, where he currently races (and finished 2nd in the season-opening race in Shanghai this April.)

Kantandhee Kusiri, the 25-year-old native of Chonburi, Thailand, will be the third Thai driver on the grid for this race – and he comes in as the reigning champion of the TCR Asia series, and a race winner with this team in GT Asia at the Sepang International Circuit this March. Jousse and Kusiri have a massive task in front of them to keep up with the regular GT300 runners, but there’s potential in this team to surprise.

A much welcome surprise on the GT300 grid is the return of former Lexus GT500 driver and race winner, Andrea Caldarelli!

Caldarelli, who raced for Lexus Teams Kraft, TOM’s, and Le Mans from 2012-2017, will return – this time as a Lamborghini Squadra Corse factory racer – to drive the #88 ManePa Lamborghini Huracán GT3 with Kazuki Hiramine, as Marco Mapelli will be at Suzuka fulfilling his commitments in the Blancpain GT Asia Series.

Seven teams will not make the trip due to budget constrants: Team Mach (#5), R’Qs Motor Sports (#22), Team Taisan (#26), Dijon Racing (#48), EIcars Bentley (#117), Tomei Sports (#360), and CarGuy Racing (#777) will all return to action at the following round, the Fuji GT 500 Mile Race.