42 Car Entry For 2022 Super GT Round One at Okayama

The GT Association (GTA) has published the entry list for the first round of the 2022 Autobacs Super GT Series. The upcoming Okayama GT 300km Race on 16-17 April will have a 42 car entry list, featuring all 15 GT500 cars and 27 GT300 cars out of the 28 registered full-time entries.

For the GT500 class, there are no changes from the regular entry.

As confirmed this past week, Max Racing will sit out the opening round after the passing of team owner Tsuyoshi Oono. They are the only absent team from the GT300 field.

BMW factory driver Augusto Farfus is expected to make his full-time Super GT debut in Okayama, joining Seiji Ara at BMW Team Studie x CSL. Farfus hasn’t been able to take part in pre-season testing for Studie, but he has racked up plenty of racing mileage in the new BMW M4 GT3 at Daytona and Imola. His participation is pending approval of a Japanese work visa – if he is unable to secure his visa in time for the opening round, Tsubasa Kondo will replace him.

2012 GT300 champion Naoki Yokomizo will join Kei Cozzolino at Pacific-CarGuy Racing for the first round. Yokomizo will replace Takeshi Kimura, who will be at Circuit Paul Ricard for the European Le Mans Series opener on the same weekend.

All remaining teams will field their regular lineups, with gentleman driver Yuki Tanaka filling out the last remaining TBN slot at NILZZ Racing.

The GTA also announced today that the special Balance of Performance (BoP) used in last year’s visit to Okayama International Circuit will be used again in this year’s race, in an effort to curtail speeds around the 3.703 kilometre circuit.

All 15 GT500 cars will be fitted with the ‘Stage 2’ fuel flow restrictor, which restricts the maximum fuel burn from the standard rate of 95 kilogrammes per hour, to 90.2 kg/h.

In GT300, all cars will carry additional ‘Special BoP weight’ in addition to their standard BoP weight and other settings. This special BoP weight ranges between 33 and 52 kilogrammes depending on the vehicle.

In addition, routine pit stops for this race will require a driver change and changing all four tyres. This rule was used for the first and final rounds of the 2021 season.