SRO has released the provisional entry list for the 50th running of the Suzuka 1000km, featuring 28 cars from eight manufacturers, spread across four different classes.
Headlining the field in the Intercontinental GT Challenge’s fourth round is a nine-car Pro category with a strong mix of local and domestic talent and teams. However, it’s highly likely there will be a new champion of the race: BMW and Team WRT have decided not to send any factory-supported entries to this year’s race – WRT is here, but only with a single customer car in the Bronze class, and BMW’s four entries are all spread across the Bronze and Pro-Am classes.
IGTC Manufacturers’ Championship leaders Porsche are represented in the Pro class solely by Absolute Racing, entering two cars: The #7 of Ayhancan Güven, Alessandro Ghiretti, and Dorian Boccolacci, plus the #8, in partnership with AO Racing, of Alessio Picariello, Laurin Heinrich, and Julien Andlauer.
Porsche is the most prominent manufacturer in the field with 10 total entries, but prominent GT World Challenge Asia customer teams Origine Motorsport and Phantom Global Racing will not take part in this year’s Suzuka 1000km.
Also fielding two Pro entries is Mercedes-AMG: In addition to the #77 Craft-Bamboo Racing “Taxi” car of Maxime Martin, Luca Stolz, and Kakunoshin Ohta, the Silver Arrows will also have a Pro entry from Kenny Habul’s 75 Express team.
Habul will share the #75 car with Mikaël Grenier and Philip Ellis out of the Mercedes-AMG Performance Driver stable, as the Australian Bronze driver is also eligible to score points towards the IGTC Independent Cup.
Mercedes-AMG scored overall victory in this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour, but Team GMR (GruppeM), the winning team at Bathurst this year and a previous winner of the Suzuka summer endurance race, is absent from the field. The other notable absence out of the Mercedes-AMG camp in this year’s 1000km is Goodsmile Racing & TeamUKYO, which won’t run this race for the first time since it was established in 2008.
Ferrari’s Pro entry is the #45 PONOS Racing 296 GT3 EVO with Tadasuke Makino, Seita Nonaka, and Takuro Shinohara.
Chevrolet and Johor Motorsports Racing (JMR) will bid to improve upon their third-place run last year, as Alexander Sims, Nicky Catsburg, and Scott McLaughlin all return to drive the #2 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
And the Ford Mustang GT3 Evo will make its Suzuka 1000km debut, as Frédéric Vervisch, Christopher Mies, and Dennis Olsen team up to drive the #64 Miedecke Motorsport by Team MPC entry.
Apart from the regular IGTC manufacturers, Nissan and Lexus will also fight for overall honours with their respective GT3 cars, fielded by strong local teams and pro drivers.
Team 5Zigen’s #500 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 is loaded with factory SUPER GT GT500 drivers: Katsumasa Chiyo, Kazuki Hiramine, and Atsushi Miyake will look to give the GT-R what would be a sensational home victory.
Representing Lexus is K-tunes Racing, a regular in SUPER GT and SRO Japan Cup, fielding the #96 RC F GT3 for Toyota factory driver Sena Sakaguchi, Hideki Yamauchi, and Takamitsu Matsui. Yamauchi won the 2016 Suzuka 1000km in GT300, and along with Matsui, both are past SUPER GT GT300 Champions.
12 cars are in the Bronze Cup field (Bronze/Silver/Open), and another six entries feature in the Pro-Am Cup (Bronze/Bronze/Open).
Within that group are six drivers fighting for the IGTC Independent Cup against the aforementioned Habul.
Leading the Independent Cup standings is Li Kerong, who will anchor the Bronze class #86 High Class Racing Porsche with Anders Fjørdbach and Joel Sturm.
Malaysian Prince Jefri Ibrahim in the Pro-Am #99 JMR Corvette will drive alongside younger brother Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim and Ben Green; also in the Pro-Am class is Johannes Zelger, who brings his #79 Tsunami RT Porsche to Suzuka for the first time, with Fabio Babini and Daniel Gaunt.
Porsche will support the three remaining Independent Cup contenders in the Bronze class. Adrian D’Silva and the #61 EBM Giga Racing team make their season debuts – with back-to-back GT World Asia champion Leo Ye Hongli and outgoing IMSA GTP champion Mathieu Jaminet alongside. Ralf Bohn and the #91 Herberth Motorsport team return alongside the Renauer brothers, Alfred and Robert, while Jonathan Hui anchors the #93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing car with Chris Froggatt and Eddie Cheever III.
Elsewhere in the Bronze class are three of the four BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, most prominent of which is the #69 Team WRT entry, featuring WEC LMGT3 race winners Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson, and BMW M factory driver Dan Harper. Team KRC and BMW M Team Studie round out the Bronze trio for last year’s overall winning manufacturer.
Two cars from Porsche Center Okazaki, and a single car for Bingo Racing with LM Corsa, complete Porsche’s Bronze Cup ranks, while Ferrari has two Bronze entries – one from LM Corsa, and one from Maezawa Racing, but none from leading GT World Asia customer Harmony Racing.
The field in Pro-Am is completed by a second Team KRC BMW, the second Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG, a second LM corsa Ferrari, and Norik Racing’s Ferrari.
Nissan is guaranteed at least one trophy as RunUp Sports’ #360 GT-R NISMO GT3 is the only Am class (Bronze/Bronze/Bronze) entrant as it stands.
Indeed, it’s a list that is as highlighted by who will be racing in Suzuka as it is by who won’t.
Last year’s IGTC Drivers’ Champion Kelvin van der Linde, and current IGTC championship leader Maro Engel, are among the many drivers with DTM commitments keeping them from racing at Suzuka. This also includes all three winners of the Spa 24 Hours (Bastian Buus, Ricardo Feller, and Thomas Preining).
None of van der Linde, Raffaele Marciello, and Charles Weerts have returned to defend their 2025 overall victory. Neither are any of the second-place trio of Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, and Patrick Pilet, or last year’s Bronze Cup winners Antares Au, Loek Hartog, and Richard Lietz – who finished an amazing fourth overall last year. As such, Vervisch is one of only two previous outright race winners of the race in this year’s field; the other is LM Corsa’s Shigekazu Wakisaka (in the Pro-Am #60 Ferrari shared with Giancarlo Fisichella).
Goodsmile Racing is among the many SUPER GT GT300 teams that will not take part in this year’s race, and out of the current group that includes K-tunes Racing, PONOS Racing, LM corsa, and RunUp (Tomei) Sports, their entries will be run with equipment and personnel already allocated to SRO competition.
As such, there will be only FIA GT3 cars in the field, with some notable marques missing: No Aston Martin, McLaren, or Lamborghinis in either Temerario or Huracán form, while the Audi R8 has seemingly raced the Suzuka 1000km for the final time with no entries either.
And despite the possibility that it would return for one final challenge, Bingo Racing has retired the fan-favourite Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R, which was quick in last year’s event, in favour of the newest Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Feature image © Gruppe C Photography / SRO
