FIA Reports 280-Plus Entries for Thailand’s Asia-Pacific Motorsport Championship
More than 280 drivers from 19 countries have entered the 2026 Asia-Pacific Motorsport Championship, the FIA said in its October 20 announcement. The federation describes that as a record and a 40% increase on 2025.
The organiser’s event website lists October 23–25 at Bira Circuit in Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand. Hosted by the Royal Automobile Association of Thailand, this is the third edition, following Malaysia in 2024 and Sri Lanka in 2025.
Six disciplines, not one conventional race meeting
The programme spans karting sprint, karting endurance, karting slalom, auto gymkhana, autocross and esports. That mix gives the championship a different character from a weekend built around a single touring-car or single-seater grid.
The organiser describes gymkhana as a precision-timed competition using identical supplied cars, while autocross uses a marked gravel-and-tarmac course with cars allocated by lottery. Its esports programme lists Assetto Corsa and iRacing. These are published programme details, not results from completed competition.
Which participation count to use
The event homepage also carries promotional figures referring to 24 nations and 250–500 competitors. Those do not match the FIA’s more specific October 20 entry update. This report uses the dated FIA figure—over 280 drivers from 19 countries—rather than treating the homepage numbers as a final start list.
Entries also are not the same as starters or finishers. Scrutineering, withdrawals and discipline-specific lists can change who actually competes; results should be checked against the organiser’s official updates after each contest.
For the regional motorsport community, the notable development is the scale of participation across several accessible disciplines. A single overall attendance number, however, cannot establish the strength of every individual class or predict who will win.
For another grassroots development, read our report on the FIA’s new Rally6 category and estimated vehicle costs.
Archive illustration: Bira Circuit’s layout, drawn on September 9, 2019. This is not a map of the individual 2026 championship competition courses. Illustration: Dandelion Sprout / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Displayed without editorial alteration.
