Pacific Racing Team has switched manufacturers from Mercedes-AMG to BMW for the 2026 Autobacs SUPER GT Series GT300 campaign, bringing BMW back to Japan’s top sports car racing championship after a one-year absence.
This change also introduces the BMW M4 GT3 EVO to SUPER GT for the first time. The original BMW M4 GT3 won two races in the hands of BMW M Team Studie, which had previously represented BMW in SUPER GT until the end of 2024.
Pacific is also changing tyre suppliers for the final year of multi-make tyre competition, switching to Michelin tyres for the first time since 2020 – when the team was a joint entry with D’station Racing and its Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Veteran driver Ryohei Sakaguchi, who has spent parts of 17 seasons as a GT300 driver including two stints at Pacific Racing Team, will stand down from driving duties and will now serve as the team’s Sporting Director alongside newly-appointed General Manager Hirokazu Kobayashi.
The driver line-up will consist of Yusuke Tomibayashi and Yuta Fujiwara, the latter of whom has been promoted to a full-time role after two seasons mostly running the endurance rounds for Pacific.
Tomibayashi, a pure esports-to-real-world racing convert and four-time Super Taikyu Series champion, enters his fifth season in SUPER GT. His fifth-place finish at Okayama was his best result in GT300 since his first and only podium to date, scored in his rookie season.
20-year-old Fujiwara has appeared in eight SUPER GT races since his debut in 2024, while also competing as a dual-motorsport athlete in D1 Grand Prix last year.
And for the first time since 2020, Rintaro Kubo will participate in SUPER GT as Pacific Racing Team’s third driver. Kubo had previously driven for Pacific in 2018. Since his last GT300 appearance, Kubo has won titles in Super Taikyu and the GR86/BRZ Cup Professional Series, and more recently, he has been part of Subaru’s annual entries at the Nürburgring 24 Hours since 2024.
Pacific Racing Team finished 21st in the GT300 Teams’ Championship last year and will look to take at least its first podium finish since 2017 at Okayama.
Feature image © BMW
