Autopolis Super Taikyu Race Draws 46 Entries

The Super Taikyu Organisation (STO) has released the entry list for round four of the 2022 Eneos Super Taikyu Series powered by Hankook. The five-hour Super Taikyu Race at Autopolis takes place this Sunday, representing the halfway point of the season.

With nine cars, the ST-X (FIA GT3) field will be the largest of the 2022 campaign. Joining the top class for the first time this year are reigning ST-X champions D’station Racing, who return with their #777 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 driven by Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii, and Tsubasa Kondo. Commitments in the FIA World Endurance Championship have prevented the Hoshino and Fujii-led squad from taking part in the first three rounds. But with a lengthy break until the upcoming 6 Hours of Fuji, D’station will have their “A-team” on track for the first time this year.

Also making their debut are PLUS Racing and the new BMW M4 GT3. The BMW Team Studie-supported team will have the same Pro-Am driver lineup that they used in GT World Challenge Asia: Team owner Tomohide Yamaguchi and 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Seiji Ara, joined by journeyman sports car racer Yuya Sakamoto.

They join the other seven full-time entries, including the championship-leading #888 Grid Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Martin Berry/Shinichi Takagi/Haruki Kurosawa/Daisuke Yamawaki), which won at Sportsland Sugo last time out to take the points lead.

There are also four ST-Z (GT4) entries, with the #505 Audi Team AS Sport R8 LMS GT4 returning for the first time since the Fuji 24 Hours. The #885 SHADE Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 (Hiro Hayashi/Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Eijiro Shimizu) leads by just two points from the #500 Team 5Zigen Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Kakunoshin Ota/Toshihiro Kaneishi) in a close battle. Hiranaka is coming off a class victory in last weekend’s GT World Challenge Asia round at Fuji Speedway aboard a similar GR Supra.

Also, the ST-TCR class is back in action with the two Honda Civic TCRs of Team Noah and M&K Honda Cars Okegawa Racing, both of whom elected not to take part in the Sugo round.

Another car that’s back in action is the #28 ORC ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR86 CNF Concept (Naoya Gamou/Daisuke Toyoda/Kazuya Oshima/Ryuta Ukai). The ST-5 class will sit out Autopolis, while the ST-2 class rotates back into the lineup headlined by the all-wheel drive sports cars such as the Toyota GR Yaris.

In total, 46 cars have entered, a healthy grid for Super Taikyu’s annual trip to the circuit in the southern Kyushu island. The race starts Sunday 11:00 AM JST (local time) / 4:00 CEST / 3:00 BST, starting just before sunrise at Spa-Francorchamps during their 24-hour race.

Feature image © S.T.O.