The 40-car entry list for the upcoming SUPER GT Autopolis GT 450km Race has been published. It’s the penultimate round of the 2023 Autobacs SUPER GT Series and the fifth and final 450-kilometre round of the season.
Headlining the changes for this entry list is, of course, the change at Team Kunimitsu following Naoki Yamamoto’s season-ending neck injury. Tadasuke Makino and Iori Kimura will see out the remainder of the season in the #100 Stanley Honda NSX-GT. This will be Kimura’s proper GT500 debut, as he’d previously stood in as a third driver with ARTA for round four at Fuji Speedway.
Success Weight on all cars has been reduced for this penultimate round of the season, down to 1 kg per point in GT500. As such, only the championship-leading #3 CraftSports Motul Nissan Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) will carry a fuel flow restrictor below the standard 95 kg/h, limited to 92.6 kg/h instead plus 34kg of ballast weight.
| Class | No. | Vehicle/Registered Name | Drivers | Entrant | Tyres |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GT500 | 1 | Nissan Z GT500 Marelli Impul Z | Kazuki Hiramine Bertrand Baguette | Team Impul | Bridgestone |
| GT500 | 3 | Nissan Z GT500 Niterra Motul Z | Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi | NDDP Racing | Michelin |
| GT500 | 8 | Honda NSX-GT ARTA Mugen NSX-GT | Tomoki Nojiri Toshiki Oyu | ARTA | Bridgestone |
| GT500 | 14 | Toyota GR Supra GT500 Eneos X Prime GR Supra | Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita | TGR Team Eneos ROOKIE | Bridgestone |
| GT500 | 16 | Honda NSX-GT ARTA Mugen NSX-GT | Nirei Fukuzumi Hiroki Otsu | ARTA | Bridgestone |
| GT500 | 17 | Honda NSX-GT Astemo NSX-GT | Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita | Astemo Real Racing | Bridgestone |
| GT500 | 19 | Toyota GR Supra GT500 WedsSport Advan GR Supra | Yuji Kunimoto Sena Sakaguchi | TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh | Yokohama |
| GT500 | 23 | Nissan Z GT500 Motul Autech Z | Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli | NISMO | Michelin |
| GT500 | 24 | Nissan Z GT500 Realize Corporation Advan Z | Daiki Sasaki Kohei Hirate | Kondo Racing | Yokohama |
| GT500 | 36 | Toyota GR Supra GT500 au TOM'S GR Supra | Sho Tsuboi Ritomo Miyata | TGR Team au TOM's | Bridgestone |
| GT500 | 37 | Toyota GR Supra GT500 Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra | Ukyo Sasahara Giuliano Alesi | TGR Team Deloitte TOM's | Bridgestone |
| GT500 | 38 | Toyota GR Supra GT500 ZENT Cerumo GR Supra | Yuji Tachikawa Hiroaki Ishiura | TGR Team ZENT Cerumo | Bridgestone |
| GT500 | 39 | Toyota GR Supra GT500 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra | Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuichi Nakayama | TGR Team SARD | Bridgestone |
| GT500 | 64 | Honda NSX-GT Modulo NSX-GT | Takuya Izawa Kakunoshin Ohta | Modulo Nakajima Racing | Dunlop |
| GT500 | 100 | Honda NSX-GT Stanley NSX-GT | Tadasuke Makino Iori Kimura | Team Kunimitsu | Bridgestone |
From the 25 cars in GT300, 13 of them have three-driver lineups.
The most notable of these is GT300 Championship leaders, Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave. They’ve recruited former Hoppy Team Tsuchiya driver and Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge (TGR-DC) prospect Seita Nonaka to join regular drivers Hiroki Yoshida and Kohta Kawaai.
22-year-old Nonaka started the season with Tsuchiya Engineering before the #25 Hoppy Schatz Toyota GR Supra was lost in a fire in the fourth round at Fuji – and he also joined GreenBrave in the Super Taikyu Fuji 24 Hours, en route to an ST-Z (GT4) class win.
The #52 GreenBrave GR Supra will be carrying 75kg of Success Weight at Autopolis, as the GT300 Success Weight has been reduced to 1.5kg per point in this round.
Other third drivers nominated are Hiroki Katoh (muta Racing INGING), Seiya Jin (Team LeMans), Shintaro Kawabata (Pacific Racing Team), Yusuke Shiotsu (Gainer #11), Shinnosuke Yamada (SHADE Racing), Masaki Kano (R’Qs Motor Sports), Yuta Kamimura (apr #30), Yuki Nemoto (apr #31), Takumi Sanada (NILZZ Racing), Miki Koyama (Anest Iwata Racing with Arnage), Haruki Kurosawa (K2 R&D LEON Racing), and Takuya Otaki (Tomei Sports).
| Class | No. | Vehicle/Registered Name | Drivers | Entrant | Tyres |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GT300 | 2 | Toyota GR86 GT300 muta Racing GR86 GT | Yuui Tsutsumi Hibiki Taira Hiroki Katoh | muta Racing INGING | Bridgestone |
| GT300 | 4 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG | Nobuteru Taniguchi Tatsuya Kataoka | Goodsmile Racing & TeamUKYO | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 5 | Dome MC86 Mach Syaken Air Buster MC86 Mach Go | Yusuke Tomibayashi Takamitsu Matsui | Team Mach | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 6 | Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II Dobot Audi R8 LMS | Yoshiaki Katayama Roberto Merhi Muntan Seiya Jin | Team LeMans | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 7 | BMW M4 GT3 Studie BMW M4 | Seiji Ara Bruno Spengler | BMW M Team Studie x CRS | Michelin |
| GT300 | 9 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo Pacific VSpo NAC AMG | Ryohei Sakaguchi Liang Jiatong Shintaro Kawabata | Pacific Racing Team | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 10 | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 Ponos Gainer GT-R | Hironobu Yasuda Riki Okusa | Gainer | Dunlop |
| GT300 | 11 | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 Gainer TanaX GT-R | Ryuichiro Tomita Keishi Ishikawa Yusuke Shiotsu | Gainer | Dunlop |
| GT300 | 18 | Honda NSX GT3 Evo UPGarage NSX GT3 | Takashi Kobayashi Syun Koide | Team UPGarage | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 20 | Toyota GR86 GT300 SHADE Racing GR86 GT | Katsuyuki Hiranaka Eijiro Shimizu Shinnosuke Yamada | SHADE Racing | Dunlop |
| GT300 | 22 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo R'Qs AMG GT3 | Hisashi Wada Masaki Jyonai Masaki Kano | R'Qs Motor Sports | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 27 | Honda NSX GT3 Evo Yogibo NSX GT3 | Yugo Iwasawa Reimei Ito | Yogibo Racing | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 30 | Toyota GR86 GT300 apr GR86 GT | Hiroaki Nagai Manabu Orido Yuta Kamimura | apr | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 31 | Lexus LC500h GT300 apr LC500h GT | Koki Saga Kazuto Kotaka Yuki Nemoto | apr | Bridgestone |
| GT300 | 48 | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 Shokumou K's Frontier GT-R | Taiyo Ida Yuki Tanaka Takumi Sanada | NILZZ Racing | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 50 | Lexus RC F GT3 Anest Iwata Racing RC F GT3 | Igor Omura Fraga Yuga Furutani Miki Koyama | Anest Iwata Racing with Arnage | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 52 | Toyota GR Supra GT300 Saitama Toyopet GB GR Supra GT | Hiroki Yoshida Kohta Kawaai Seita Nonaka | Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave | Bridgestone |
| GT300 | 56 | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 Realize Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R | João Paulo de Oliveira Teppei Natori | Kondo Racing | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 60 | Toyota GR Supra GT300 Syntium LMcorsa GR Supra GT | Hiroki Yoshimoto Shunsuke Kohno | LM corsa | Dunlop |
| GT300 | 61 | Subaru BRZ GT300 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport | Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi | R&D Sport | Dunlop |
| GT300 | 65 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo LEON Pyramid AMG | Naoya Gamou Takuro Shinohara Haruki Kurosawa | K2 R&D LEON Racing | Bridgestone |
| GT300 | 87 | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Bamboo Airways Lamborghini GT3 | Kosuke Matsuura Natsu Sakaguchi | JLOC | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 88 | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 | Takashi Kogure Yuya Motojima | JLOC | Yokohama |
| GT300 | 96 | Lexus RC F GT3 K-tunes RC F GT3 | Morio Nitta Shinichi Takagi | K-tunes Racing | Dunlop |
| GT300 | 360 | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 RunUp Rivaux GT-R | Takayuki Aoki Atsushi Tanaka Takuya Otaki | Tomei Sports | Yokohama |
Feature image © GTA