On Christmas Day, SHADE Racing announced that it will be changing cars for the upcoming Autobacs SUPER GT Series GT300 campaign, swapping out its GTA-GT300 Toyota GR86 for a Lexus RC F GT3.
That RC F GT3 will still be driven by veteran Katsuyuki Hiranaka and his young co-driver Eijiro Shimizu, who’ll be driving for their fifth season together. The #20 SHADE Racing RC F GT3 will continue to run on Michelin tyres, as the team did the previous season with the GR86.
Just two years after SHADE Racing broke through for its first GT300 podium finish, at Sportsland Sugo in 2023, the team suffered a wretched 2025 season, with a best finish of 17th at the Fuji Golden Week race.
Last season was punctuated by two major incidents: In May, the SHADE GR86 suffered a massive fire during a testing accident at Suzuka, which forced the team to pull out of Sepang. Then in September, Hiranaka was involved in a multi-car accident during the Sugo GT 300km Race, and the car suffered severe damage which forced them to pull out of Autopolis.
Though the team would return for Motegi, Hiranaka and Shimizu scored zero points in the drivers’ standings, and the team finished 28th and last in the teams’ standings.
“Last season saw us plagued by numerous incidents, resulting in a series of extremely tough battles,” Hiranaka said. “While it is frustrating that we were unable to achieve the results we desired, we will draw strength from that experience and approach the 2026 season with an even stronger resolve.
“Entering our fifth year, we will also be switching to a new machine, the Lexus RC F GT3. The challenge with this new car will not be easy, but we will prepare thoroughly alongside the team and fight each race with determination. We continue our partnership with Michelin for tyres and will give our utmost effort to deliver results starting from the opening round.”
SHADE Racing’s acquisition of the old, but still viable RC F GT3 keeps two iterations of the car on the grid in 2026, alongside the one used by K-tunes Racing. Anest Iwata Racing, who’d previously run the RC F GT3 for three seasons, plans to reveal its new car in February – and was notably absent from Toyota’s press release issued a week ago.
However, SHADE Racing is also the only confirmed Michelin GT300 customer at present, following the news that the #30 apr Toyota GR86 would change back to Yokohama tyres for the 2026 season.
2026 will be the RC F GT3’s 12th season racing in SUPER GT: The car made its worldwide racing debut in 2015, two seasons before it was homologated and ended up in customers’ hands across Japan, North America, and briefly in Europe.
The car will be replaced as Toyota’s flagship GT3 car by the new GR GT3 in 2027, but it is likely that like the RC F GT3, the GR GT3 will be racing in a limited capacity next year before its full-scale launch.
Feature image © SHADE Racing
