The 2026 ENEOS Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone came to a disappointing end on Sunday. Heavy rain and poor visibility forced race organisers to call off the final round at Fuji Speedway after just two laps run behind the safety car.
Fuji Motorsports Forest, the Toyota subsidiary which operates the circuit, will issue partial refunds to the spectators who attended, and STMO Chairman Akio Toyoda went to every team’s garage to give his thanks to the competitors.
It meant that the #182 Hitotsuyama Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Masashi Fujii, Sean Walkinshaw, Fumihisa “Fuzzy” Matsumoto, and Yuki Fujii was declared the winner, having taken pole position on Saturday, ahead of the #81 GTNET MotorSports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 (Ryuichiro Oyagi/Kiyoto Fujinami/Natsu Sakaguchi/Kohei Tokumasu) and #777 D’station Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo (Satoshi Hoshino/Tomonobu Fujii/Yuta Kamimura).
The #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG of Daisuke Matsunaga, Tatsuya Kataoka, Yuhki Nakayama, and Yuya Motojima finished fifth to officially win the 2026 ST-X (GT3) class championship, the team’s first.
The win in ST-1 went to the #2 K’s Frontier KTM Cars X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto), while the #47 D’station Porsche 992 Cup of Kenji Hama (Kenichi Hamano), Tatsuya Hoshino, Tetsuya Tanaka, and Taiga Kabaki took the championship.
In ST-Z (GT4) the win went to the #22 Kokusai Group Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport (Ryosuke Kure/Rintaro Kubo/Shota Kitazono/Naoya Yamano), with the #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 (Kota Matsui/Seita Nonaka/Naoki Hattori/Hiroki Yoshida).
Finishing third in ST-Z and clinching the championship was the #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z NISMO GT4 of Ryuichiro Otsuka, Ryuichiro Tomita, and Tsugio Matsuda (Takuro Shinohara missed this event due to commitments in the Asian Le Mans Series). This is the first championship for the Nissan Z GT4 platform, which endured a brief but troubled run in North America, but has enjoyed far greater success in Japan.
The #97 M&K Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR (Mitsuhiro Endo/Tomoki Nojiri/Osamu Kondo/Tarn Yuranun) won ST-TCR ahead of the #98 Waimarama Racing Hyundai Elantra N TCR (Ryusuke Masumoto/Katsumasa Chiyo/Shigeru “Kizuna” Sato/Lee Jungwoo), while third place was enough for the #19 Birth Racing Project Cupra TCR of Sesshu Kondo, Takeshi Suehiro, Takashi Kochiya, and Taiga Imoto to clinch the 2026 championship.
Going into the production classes, the #72 NATS Honda Civic Type R (Makoto Kanai/Tetsuya Yamano/Toshiya Nojima) won the ST-2 class. All three drivers will return next season to drive for the Nihon Automobile College squad.
Meanwhile Endless Sports’ #13 Toyota GR Yaris driven by Masaya Hanazato, Mizuki Ishizaka, Reimei Ito, and Hitoshi Okada went on to clinch the ST-2 title with a sixth-place result.
The #39 Tracy Sports with RCIT Lexus RC 350 of Yuji Takahashi, Hitoshi Sakai, Shinya Fujita and Ren Takahashi completed a perfect season in ST-3, while Tracy Sports secured a championship double as the #41 Toyota GR86 of Takumi Shima, Yusuke Tomibayashi, Yohei Maruyama and Yuki Ohta won the ST-4 title.
The win in ST-4 went to the #884 SHADE Racing GR86 (Tatsuya Osaki/Eijiro Shimizu/Shinnosuke Yamada).
The #88 Murakami Motors Mazda Roadster of Hiroyuki Murakami, Sena Kuronuma, Tatsuya Ota, and Daichi Okamoto finished its title-winning campaign by winning in ST-5R.
And in ST-5F, the #822 AndLegal Racing Honda Fit3 RS (Kenta Kawafuku/Nanami Tsukamoto/Yuya Egi/Tomohiro Uchida) took the win, while the championship went to the #4 Team Bride Fit of Yu(ya) Ohta, Takao Seto, Yoshikazu Sobu, and Kuniyuki Haga.
The highest-finishing ST-Q car was the TCR-based #271 Team HRC Honda Civic Type R HRC Concept (Hiroki Otsu/Kotaro Shimbara/Shion Tsujimoto) which finished 16th, though none of the six ST-Q cars were given a chance to test their endurance in Sunday’s race.
The 2027 ENEOS Super Taikyu Series will begin at Mobility Resort Motegi with a double-header opening round on 27–28 March, followed by the 12th running of the Fuji 24 Hour Race on 4–6 June (held on the week of Le Mans Test Day.)
Autopolis International Racing Course will host the third round on 24–25 July, then the series moves to Sportsland Sugo on 28–29 August, Suzuka Circuit on 2–3 October, Okayama International Circuit on 30–31 October, and then the season will once again conclude at Fuji Speedway on 4–5 December.
Images © STMO
