SUPER GT Prepares For Golden Week Special At Fuji

Motorsport has been a small part of Japan’s Golden Week holiday ever since the first modern Japan Grand Prix in 1963, and since 1994, the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship/SUPER GT Series’ annual Golden Week race at Fuji Speedway has been a staple of the calendar, its most popular race.

This year’s Fuji GT 3 Hours Race: GW Special takes place on its traditional 4 May date – this time, on a Sunday – and features a full 43-car field with several teams carrying guest drivers.

Just like last year’s Golden Week race, TGR Team au TOM’S and Sho Tsuboi enter the race meeting with a chance to make history. Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita will attempt to be the first SUPER GT drivers to win four consecutive races together. But to do it, they’ll have to overcome 40 kilogrammes of Success Weight from their Okayama victory in April.

While there will be plenty of Toyota support at the Toyota-owned circuit, Fuji Speedway was the site of Honda and Nissan’s only GT500 victories in 2024. Last year, Mitsunori Takaboshi and Atsushi Miyake won for NISMO NDDP – this year, they’re in separate Nissan Z NISMO GT500s that are eager to rebound from a tough weekend at Okayama. ARTA drivers Tomoki Nojiri and Nobuharu Matsushita gave the Honda Civic Type R-GT its first win at Fuji in August during the 350 km race. They’re back in their #8 ARTA Mugen Civic Type-R looking for another win around the famous circuit.

Unlike the Suzuka 1000km races of SUPER GT seasons past, the Fuji Golden Week race rarely requires GT500 teams to bring a third driver. But this weekend TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh will enter a three-driver line-up for the #19 WedsSport Advan Toyota GR Supra featuring the GT500 debut of factory driver Kazuto Kotaka. Toyota’s GT500 reserve driver has recently begun to spread his wings in the world of sports car racing, making his GT World Challenge Europe debut at Circuit Paul Ricard earlier this year.

In GT300, the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami took a hard-fought and slightly controversial victory. In a mixed-weather race, FIA GT3 cars locked out the top nine positions, and Mercedes customers represented three of the top five at Okayama. Meanwhile, defending GT300 Champions JLOC, Takashi Kogure and Yuya Motojima, were only able to scrape together a ninth place in their #0 Venteny Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2.

But this Golden Week race is where Kogure and Motojima lit the match paper of their title-winning season with a commanding victory. Can they do it again this year?

Several GT300 teams have enlisted the help of their third drivers to aid their bid for victory, or at least stand by as reserve drivers. For instance, K2 R&D LEON Racing’s Team Director Haruki Kurosawa is entered, but the 2018 GT300 Champion is almost certainly not going to drive outside of an emergency.

That may not be the case for a handful of young, debuting drivers, both domestic and foreign. International sports car racing fans will be happy to see that Oliver Rasmussen, the former FIA WEC Hypercar driver, could make his long-awaited GT300 debut in the #31 apr Lexus LC500h. Rasmussen has been out of action for almost two months due to a back injury and missed the Okayama round.

The other debuting foreign talent is Harry King, a perennial standout of various Porsche Carrera Cup series – who’s making a name for himself in GT3 racing. King will drive the #666 seven x seven Porsche 911 GT3 R alongside the two-time GT300 Champion Kiyoto Fujinami and multi-time Porsche Carrera Cup Japan Champion Tsubasa Kondo.

Notable Japanese drivers making their GT300 debuts this weekend include outstanding Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge (TGR-DC) prospect, 18-year-old Yuki Sano, driving for SHADE Racing. Former TGR-DC driver Kazuhisa Urabe will also be behind the wheel of a Toyota GR86 GT300 for Hyper Water Racing INGING, his family’s team.

And with João Paulo de Oliveira missing his first SUPER GT races since his 2006 debut, Yu Kanamaru makes his debut for Kondo Racing in a car that finished third at Okayama. Kanamaru has gone from a single-seater journeyman in Europe to a specialist of the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 platform in GT World Challenge Asia, but can he keep the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R GT3 in contention at Fuji?

Hironobu Shimizu (Tomei Sports) and Daiki Fujiwara (NILZZ Racing) are also making their first starts as third drivers, alongside returnees like Yuta Fujiwara (Pacific Racing Team), Masaki Jyonai (R’Qs Motor Sports), Ryo Ogawa (apr #30 Toyota GR86), Reimei Ito (LM corsa) – and for the first time on the entry list of a SUPER GT race since 2012, Keita Sawa (CarGuy MKS Racing).

The Fuji GT 3 Hours Race starts Sunday, 4 May at 2:10 PM JST.

Images © GTA