Super Taikyu Race In Autopolis Draws 41 Car Entry List (Updated)

The Super Taikyu Organisation (STO) has published the provisional entry list for next week’s Super Taikyu Race in Autopolis, which features 41 cars for the upcoming five-hour race around Autopolis International Racing Course.

This fourth round of the Eneos Super Taikyu Series Supported by Bridgestone features, for the first time this season, the ST-TCR class with two entries from M&K Management, including the Japanese racing debut of the new Honda Civic Type R TCR (FL5).

Mitsuhiro Endo will share the #97 M&K Racing Civic FL5 with Honda-backed young drivers Yusuke Mitsui and Tosei Moriyama. A previous-generation Civic FK8 is also entered under the AI’ Racing banner – the #5 Civic FK8 will be driven by Kazuhiro Sakai and Masato Mitsuhashi, and Shion Tsujimoto, one of the leading young women in Japanese motorsport.

They will share the track with the GT3 and GT4 cars from the ST-X and ST-Z classes. ST-X features six cars, and there’s been a change at GTNET Motor Sports – where Team Daishin’s Noboyuki Oyagi is back as the designated gentleman driver. GTNET Motor Sports pulled out of the previous round at Sportsland Sugo before testing for undisclosed reasons. In addition, the name of MP Racing, who merged operations into GTNET and Team Daishin this year, is no longer on the entry list and the number has been changed back to 81.

An eight-car ST-Z entry list sees local squad Team Noah returning for their home race, while Porsche Team EBI Waimarama is taking a planned absence. Only the highest six scores of the seven-race season count towards the final championship rankings in ST-Z.

UPDATE: The #111 Buzz Kota Racing McLaren 570S GT4 withdrew before the race due to mechanical problems in private testing.

Meanwhile, in the ST-Q class, the #32 ORC ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept makes its return following a successful conversion to liquid hydrogen fuel at the Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours.

Mazda Spirit Racing will also expand to two cars. In addition to the #55 Mazda3 Bio (biodiesel) Concept, the #12 Mazda Spirit Racing Roadster CNF concept will make its debut. Mazda Executive Fellow and design guru Ikuo Maeda will drive the new Roadster alongside Ryohei Sakaguchi and Yuui Tsutsumi.

One car that is absent is the Team SDA Engineering #61 Subaru BRZ CNF Concept, which won overall in the Group 2 race at Sugo last time out – the first overall win for an ST-Q car in the Super Taikyu Series.

ST-1 and ST-4 classes will also sit out this round as part of the series’ rotation of classes in order to ease paddock congestion at certain events, while ST-3 returns with its five cars. Tracy Sports with Delta’s two Lexus RC 350s currently lead the ST-3 championship standings after finishing 1-2 at the Fuji 24 Hours.

Images © STO, M&K Management