Motegi Grand Final Entry Lists Published

The GTA has published the entry lists for the Autobacs SUPER GT Series’ doubleheader finale at Mobility Resort Motegi, the Motegi GT 250km Race: Grand Final on Saturday and Sunday, 7–8 November.

It is the second time in series history that the championship will be decided in a doubleheader race weekend, the first since Motegi hosted the two-race Grand Final in 2016. Next Saturday’s 250-kilometre sprint race, officially titled “Round 3”, will be the make-up race for what was meant to be the series’ fly-away round at Petronas Sepang International Circuit in June, before the season ends with its eighth and final round the following afternoon.

A single practice session will be held Friday 6 November, and single-session qualifying (one per class) will take place on the morning of both races. And over the course of the weekend, the complexion of both races will be different: Saturday’s race will be run with “half ballast” or one kilogramme of Success Weight per point, while Sunday’s race will be a no-ballast race.

42 points are available next weekend in the GT500 class: 20 points for the winners of each race, and a bonus point for the pole positions. 11 out of 14 teams are mathematically eligible to win the championship at the start of the weekend, but out of those, only four teams are within 20 points of championship leaders Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita, who are looking to make history in Motegi for TGR Team au TOM’S.

At stake is Tsuboi’s pursuit of a record-breaking fifth GT500 Drivers’ championship, while Yamashita could join his co-driver and the great Ronnie Quintarelli with his fourth title. TOM’S, as a team, is bidding to win its fourth consecutive GT500 title and fifth in six years, which would cement its status as the greatest dynasty in GT500. Making things harder for the field is that the #36 au TOM’S Toyota GR Supra GT500 has won each of the last three races at Mobility Resort Motegi.

But after their win in Autopolis, Stanley Team Kunimitsu’s Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino sit just three points back. The Honda HRC Prelude-GT has won the last four SUPER GT races, with the #100 Stanley Prelude taking two of those victories. Yamamoto will make a push for his third title at his home circuit, while Makino will go for his second championship.

Despite a cruel retirement from the last race, Astemo Real Racing’s veteran Koudai Tsukakoshi and rookie Yuto Nomura (-16) are still clinging to their hopes of a first championship, as are Toshiki Oyu and Rikuto Kobayashi (-18) for TGR Team KeePer Cerumo, whose team hasn’t won the GT500 title since 2013.

Championship contenders or not, Nissan will look to salvage a victory in one of the final two races to avoid its first winless GT500 campaign since 2002.

GT300, meanwhile, sees several notable changes, headlined by the global motorsport debut of the new GR GT3 Concept by Toyota as Team ENEOS ROOKIE (ROOKIE Racing) runs the #32 GR GT3 for Hiroaki Ishiura and Tokiya Suzuki.

Motegi will also see the return of 2023 GT500 Champion Ritomo Miyata, in a super-sub role at CarGuy MKS Racing, while apr’s Hiroaki Nagai will stand down from driving the #30 Toyota GR86 this weekend to let two-time GT300 champion Manabu Orido bow out after an incredible 31-year career.

D’station Racing has called on veteran Tsubasa Kondo, a two-time GT300 class winner, to drive its #777 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo after Tomonobu Fujii received a weekend ban for a cooldown lap collision with the #7 CarGuy Ferrari at Autopolis.

There are other changes as well, with Anest Iwata Racing bringing back ex-Honda junior Yusuke Mitsui to finish out the season in place of Lee Jung-woo. Mitsui helped steer the #26 Nissan Fairlady Z to ninth place at Autopolis, the best result of the year for Anest Iwata Racing.

And a few of the smaller teams will swap drivers between races: Suzuka winners Pacific Racing Team will have Rintaro Kubo and Yuta Fujiwara split time in the #9 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, NILZZ Racing will have a similar arrangement for Taiyo Ida and Daiki Fujiwara in the #48 Nissan GT-R, and R’Qs Motor Sports will do the same for Masaki Jyonai and Yuma Shoji.

It will be the final race for Yokohama and Michelin as SUPER GT tyre suppliers, and likely will be the last race for JLOC’s Huracán GT3 EVO2s as Lamborghini’s longest-tenured racing team should finally get its hands on the Temerario GT3 next season.

Heading into the series finale, five teams are within 25 points of GT300 championship leaders João Paulo de Oliveira and Iori Kimura. The Kondo Racing duo leads CarGuy MKS Racing’s Umegaki, the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 of defending champions Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami, and the #2 Hyper Water INGING Toyota GR86 of Yuui Tsutsumi and Kazuhisa Urabe by 20 points. D’station’s Charlie Fagg sits 25 points behind, with 26 points available in each race and 52 points available for the weekend.

Images © GTA