Suzuka 1000km class of 2026 assembles!
SRO gathered 29 out of the 30 cars in this year’s Suzuka 1000km together for the annual group photo, led at the front by the #64 Miedecke Motorsport by Team MPC Ford Mustang GT3 Evo, the #77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, the #8 AO by Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, and the sure-to-be fan-favourite #500 Team 5Zigen Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.
The group photo was hastily moved forward in the day’s proceedings due to rain; today began with bright sunny skies and very warm temperatures, which gave way to the ongoing rain showers.
Only the #10 Team KRC BMW from the Pro-Am class was not included.
The Miedecke and MPC crews had its new Mustang GT3 Evo ready to roll; should anything happen to it, a complete backup car is on site, resting in the garage next to theirs.
Some teams had their race liveries applied overnight as well including EBM Giga Racing…
…and Harmony Racing.
Tsunami RT’s livery concept hasn’t changed but the team has agreed to make changes to the characters depicted on the front and sides of the car after a polite request was made to the San Marino-based team to alter the design.
seven x seven Racing partners with Herberth
Herberth Motorsports’ sponsorship from Japanese luxury hotel company seven x seven is part of a wider-reaching partnership between Herberth and seven x seven Racing.
The Japanese team (with an auxiliary headquarters in Dubai) will help with equipment and operations both for the #91 Herberth Porsche, and for the #93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche via Tempesta’s new technical alliance with Herberth this year.
Matthew Harvey, the Team Principal of seven x seven Racing, told DSC that the arrangement was a gift to Herberth for arranging gentleman driver Hiroyuki “Bankcy” Ogawa’s first test ahead of a European Le Mans Series debut campaign that has now been cut short due to injury.
“This was an opportunity to support them and say thanks,” Harvey told DSC. “It’s a collaboration, I would say, that came about through my previous involvement with Herberth Motorsport.”
“We wanted more opportunities to test in Europe for our European Le Mans Series programme with Bankcy Racing, so for that testing programme, we needed more opportunities to test at the ELMS tracks. Our race team partner, Proton Competition, obviously can’t do everything; they’ve got prior commitments, they’re racing all over the world in many championships.
“Luckily, knowing Herberth, and knowing the quality of that team, we were able to integrate with them into a testing programme, and Bankcy really loved working with them.”
In fact, both of the Herberth-aligned cars are chassis which have previously won big for seven x seven Racing in Japan: The #91 Herberth Porsche driven by Ralf Bohn and the Renauer brothers is the same chassis that won the SUPER GT Autopolis 3 Hour Race, which ended Porsche’s 13-year winless drought in GT300.
And the #93 Tempesta Porsche is the chassis which won last year’s Super Taikyu Series ST-X (GT3) championship.
“Timelines are very difficult to run a European programme and make it out for the Suzuka 1000km,” Harvey added. “So for us to be able to facilitate Herberth entering two cars is the least we could do.”
Craft-Bamboo brings authentic Tokyo taxi to Suzuka
Craft-Bamboo Racing’s two cars will have taxi-themed liveries, but today the team went the extra mile when this machine turned up at the circuit!
It’s a real Tokyo taxi cab from Tokyo Musen – one of the many taxi services offered in the metropolis, but the only one committed to keeping the classic green and yellow Tokyo taxi liveries of yesteryear instead of going all-black like most cab companies.
It’s no surprise that Tokyo Musen will sponsor the Pro class #77 car of Maxime Martin, Luca Stolz, and Kakunoshin Ohta.
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Japan Cup finale draws 16 entries
SRO Japan Cup will run its final two races of 2026 this weekend as the championship wraps up with a pair of 60-minute sprints, starting Saturday at 1:45 PM and Sunday at 9:10 AM (local time) respectively.
The 16-car field is supplemented by some returning programmes, most notable of which is K-tunes Racing’s #96 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R driven by Kazunori Suenaga and Sena Sakaguchi.
CarGuy Racing is also back in Japan Cup, upgrading Takashi Toyoda and Kazuki Oda to a newer-spec 296 GT3 (pre-evo model) after running the 488 GT3 Evo since last year, and FiveStar with Team DreamDrive’s #25 Mercedes-AMG returns to the series.
Both Akiland Racing and E-Needs Racing have entered their GT4 Toyotas to partner the championship-winning #82 Zenko RS Garage Porsche and #44 Team Pop Race Mercedes-AMG.
Four teams are still eligible for the GT3 championship, led by the #24 Max Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO (Yusaku Shibata/Yuya Motojima), which leads the #9 Bingo Racing with LM corsa Porsche by 13 points, then another four points back to the #88 Miracolo Tokyo McLaren 720S GT3 (Tadao Uematsu/Kenta Yamashita), and a further three points back to the #1 Hitotsuyama with Cornes Racing Ferrari (Akihiro Tsuzuki/Shintaro Kawabata).
In GT3 Am, the #45 PONOS Racing Ferrari (Yusuke Yamasaki/Yorikatsu Tsujiko) leads the #19 Spirit of FFF Racing Lamborghini (Mineki Okura/Hiroshi Hamaguchi) by four points.
Bingo Racing with LM corsa, Norik Racing, and Maezawa Racing’s drivers will be racing in both Japan Cup and the Suzuka 1000km, along with K-tunes Racing’s Sakaguchi.
Carrera Cup Japan cars arrive
Along with SRO Japan Cup’s double-header finale, Porsche Carrera Cup Japan – now managed by Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific (PMAP) – will serve as this weekend’s other supporting event. It’s a double-header for PCCJ with two 12-lap sprint races scheduled for Saturday at 4:40 PM and Sunday at 10:50 AM (all times local).
It’s headlined by a four-car Pro class featuring championship leader Taichi Watarai, who’s been newly-promoted to seven x seven Racing’s GT300 squad, and Robert de Haan, the Dutchman who hasn’t lost a race this year, but sits second in the championship after missing a pair of races due to calendar clashes.
The two most recent champions of PCCJ are here also, reigning champion Iori Kimura (who drove in last year’s Suzuka 1000km), and Reimei Ito, who will complete a trio of Bingo Racing/LM corsa drivers pulling double duty this weekend.
Both races will be streamed live on the Porsche Japan YouTube channel.
AO Racing’s first Suzuka 1000km – but not the first AO Racing at the Suzuka 1000km…
It’s well-documented that AO Racing’s collaboration with Absolute Racing will see the fan-favourite American team enter the Suzuka 1000km for the very first time, three years after the upstart squad first raced in Japan for the WEC 6 Hours of Fuji in 2023.
But it’s not the first time that a team which shares the same name with PJ Hyett’s squad has raced in the Suzuka summer endurance race!
The “original” AO Racing was a short-lived Group C2 entry in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, racing with a Spice SE90C/Cosworth. Drivers Costas Los, Hideshi Matsuda, and Katsutomo Kaneishi went on to finish 13th overall in the AO Racing Spice, out of 18 starters. This AO Racing team would continue racing in the JSPC until the end of 1991.
Team owner Tsunemasa Aoshima was also responsible for putting together the ambitious all-women’s team in the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans – in collaboration with Euro Racing, running a similar Spice SE90C for Lyn St. James, Desire Wilson, and Cathy Muller.
How to follow Friday practice
There will be two test sessions and a night practice session tomorrow, neither of which will be broadcast, but avid fans can follow along with live timing supplied by TSL (Timing Solutions Limited).
The two 60-minute daytime test sessions are scheduled for 9:10–10:10 AM and 12:10–1:10 PM, with the 90-minute Night Practice starting at 5:50 PM (all times local).
Note that the public will only be welcome to the circuit starting on Saturday.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group, Dailysportscar.com, Honda Mobilityland
