Outstanding 65 Car Entry List For Super Taikyu Fuji Final

The Eneos Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone welcomes its biggest grid of the 2024 season at Fuji Speedway, the site of the Super Taikyu Fuji Final 4 Hour Race this Sunday.

Bigger than the 59-car field that turned up for this year’s Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours in May, the 65-car grid for this weekend’s race features cars from all nine Super Taikyu classes, headlined by five cars from the ST-X class – of which, four of them could win the 2024 series championship.

Sunday’s race starts at 12:30 PM JST (local time) and will be streaming live and free on the Super Taikyu TV YouTube channel with Japanese commentary provided by the team led by Yuko Kazuno, Hideo Fukuyama, Emi Nakashima, and pit reporter MC Hirata.

The most significant change on the entry list is at Craft-Bamboo Racing, who will be competing in two events across Asia – including their two-car entry at the FIA GT World Cup in Macau. With Kakunoshin Ohta unavailable due to his upcoming IMSA test at Daytona, two-time SUPER GT GT300 Champion João Paulo de Oliveira steps in to partner Jeffrey Lee and Jayden Ojeda in the #33 Mercedes-AMG GT3.

“The driver lineup for Fuji is strong with Oliveira joining Jeffrey and Jayden. Jeffrey is a fast gentleman driver, combined with Oliveira’s speed & knowledge of Fuji, and Jayden’s understanding of how to make the Mercedes fast will be key for us to win the race and championship. The team will give it all for the win,” said Craft-Bamboo Racing Japan General Manager, Shuichi Hatakeyama.

After winning the last race at Okayama, Craft-Bamboo can win the championship in their first try with a win in Sunday’s four-hour race – which pays 30 points to the winner in all championship classes. They trail TKRI’s #23 Mercedes-AMG (Daisuke Matsunaga/Yuya Motojima/Yuhki Nakayama) by 13 points, but only the six highest-scoring rounds from the season are counted towards the final ST-X standings – meaning that TKRI can’t afford to coast to the finish line.

Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing still has a chance to win back-to-back ST-X titles despite the #1 Mercedes-AMG (Ryuta Ukai/Giuliano Alesi/Naoya Gamou/Tatsuya Kataoka) missing two races in the middle of the season, but needs to finish at least second out of five cars to have a mathematical chance. Only a win would keep the #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 (Hiroaki Nagai/Kazuto Kotaka/Koki Saga) in contention. apr’s Miki Koyama is also absent this weekend, opting to race in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Final instead.

The #81 GTNET MotorSports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 (Nobuhiro Imada/Kiyoto Fujinami/Natsu Sakaguchi) is in the mix to play spoiler in the hunt for overall victory.

A 13-car ST-Z field will head into this weekend’s race for pride. Saitama Green Brave clinched their second consecutive ST-Z class Championship last time out at Okayama, but Sunday’s race could be a big test for young Rin Arakawa, who’s stepping into the #52 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO replacing Seita Nonaka – who’s heading to Europe for a test.

Five different teams and four different manufacturers have won races this season, including the #22 Porsche Team EBI 718 Cayman GT4 (Shota Kitazono/Rintaro Kubo/Naoya Yamano/Yugo Iwasawa), the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4 (Masaki Kano/Ryoma Henzan/Hironobu Yasuda/Riki Okusa), and the #885 SHADE Racing Toyota (Hiro Hayashi/Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Eijiro Shimizu), who are all separated by just six and a half points in the race for second in the standings.

The #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z NISMO GT4 (Tadao Uematsu/Tsugio Matsuda/Kimiya Sato/Teppei Natori) leads the trio of Zs looking for another win in 2024, while the #21 Hitotsuyama Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Daisuke Yamawaki/Sean Walkinshaw/James Pull/Shintaro Kawabata) is just trying to get the Silver Arrows’ first class win of the season.

2W Zoomies x GR Garage Yamaguchi-Shunan’s #59 Toyota returns for its third appearance of the season to add further depth to the field.

In ST-TCR, four cars have entered, with the #98 M&K Racing Honda Civic Type R (Shigeru “Kizuna” Sato/Lee Jung Woo/Sena Yamamoto) leading the standings by 9.5 points over its sister car the #97 (Mitsuhiro Endo/Shinji Nakano/Thanasiwanat Phongsinnatchaachun/Shion Tsujimoto). Joining the #430 Audi Team Show Apex RS3 LMS is another spot entry, from Team Select Hotels Group – which is stepping up from ST-5 to ST-TCR with a previous-generation Honda Civic FK7 model.

Three out of eight ST-2 cars can still win the championship, headlined by a showdown between two Toyota GR Yarises: The #225 KTMS Toyota (Kengo Ichijo/Shunji Okumoto/Hibiki Taira), which leads the #13 Endless Sports Toyota (Masaya Hanazato/Mizuki Ishizaka/Reimei Ito/Hitoshi Okada) by 9.5 points.

Look for Taira to impress as he fills in at KTMS for Macau-bound Jin Nakamura and Rikuto Kobayashi, against a motivated Endless Sports team determined to avenge last year’s bitter defeat. The #72 Nihon Automobile College Honda Civic Type R (Makoto Kanai/Tetsuya Yamano/Toshiya Nojima) is still in with a remote chance at the ST-2 championship, needing to replicate what Honda R&D Challenge did last year to win the title.

Just nine points separate the two Tracy Sports with Delta Lexus RC 350s in the ST-3 standings, with the #39 (Shinya Fujita/Takashi Ito/Dai Mizuno/Takumi Sanada) leading the #38 (Toshiki Komura/Toshiki Ishimori/Yuma Shoji). Okabe Jidosha Motorsports’ two Nissan Fairlady Z34s will fight for pride in this season finale.

ST-4 features a three-way title fight of its own amongst its seven entries, led by the #41 Tracy Sports with Delta Toyota GR86 (Hirotaka Ishii/Yusuke Tomibayashi/Shunsuke Ozaki). Tomibayashi is on the cusp of a fifth straight championship across all classes, but the #41 only holds a narrow three-point lead over the #3 Endless Sports GR86 (Hiroyuki Saka/Togo Suganami/Ryo Ogawa). Meanwhile, a win is the only way for the #884 SHADE Racing GR86 (Masahiko Kageyama/Yuji Kunimoto/Shinnosuke Yamada/Teppei Tsuruta) to stay in the fight.

The #66 Over Drive Mazda Roadster RF (Kyosuke Inomata/Kohei Tokumasu/Takahisa Ohno/Hirohito Ito) is a potential spoiler in that title fight after ending a seven-and-a-half year winning streak by Toyota GR86 models in ST-4.

Three Mazdas will fight for the ST-5 title in a 15-car field. The #88 Murakami Motors Roadster (Hiroyuki Murakami/Daichi Okamoto/Ryohei Arioka/Soichiro Yoshida) carries a nine-point lead over the #17 Team NOPRO Mazda2 Diesel Turbo (Hideyoshi Nishizawa/Tobio Otani/Misaki Konishi/Toshihiko Nogami), and just like ST-2 and ST-4, the longshot is the #65 Over Drive Roadster (Shuichiro Hokazono/Tatsuya Ota/Sena Kuronuma/Takuma Ikeda), needing a win to stay in the conversation.

And while not fighting for any points this weekend, the full field of eight ST-Q developmental vehicles will be at Fuji for this final race, boasting big-name drivers.

To the delight of its fans, the liquid hydrogen-powered #32 ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept is back for the first time since Autopolis, driven by stars like Akio “Morizo” Toyoda and Hiroaki Ishiura. It’ll be joined by the #28 Toyota GR86, now listed as the Future FR Concept – and to be driven by the new Super Formula Champion Sho Tsuboi.

NISMO has entered its GT4-based #230 Z NISMO Racing Concept to do battle against the #92 GR Team Spirit Toyota GR Supra Racing Concept – the prototype for the upcoming GR Supra GT4 EVO 2.

They’re joined by entries from Mazda Spirit Racing, Team SDA Engineering, and Team HRC to bring it all together as they race for personal improvement.

Images © STO