50 Cars For 2022 Super Taikyu Opener at Suzuka

The Super Taikyu Organisation (STO) has published the entry list for the first round of the 2022 Super Taikyu Series powered by Hankook, which begins in two weeks at Suzuka Circuit. In total, 50 cars are slated to enter the upcoming Suzuka 5 Hour Endurance Race on 20 March, representing eight classes.

Headlining the list are six GT3 entries in the ST-X class, and seven GT4s in ST-Z. ST-X will have two Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3s, from GTNET Motor Sports, and class newcomers HELM Motorsports. The two Mercedes-AMG GT3s of TKRI and Grid Motorsport will also make their debuts in the class. They will be joined by the Porsche Center Okazaki 911 GT3-R, and the apr Lexus RC F GT3. D’station Racing will not take part due to a clash with the 1000 Miles of Sebring that has just concluded, and MP Racing will also sit out this event with their Nissan GT-R.

In ST-Z, there are three Toyota GR Supra GT4s from Hiroshima Toyopet Racing, Corolla Shin-Ibaraki CSIRacing, and SHADE Racing. There are two variations of the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 – the Clubsport MR from Birth Racing Project, and the newest RS Clubsport model entered by Porsche Team EBI Waimarama. Team 5Zigen have the only Mercedes-AMG GT4 in the class this time out, while Techno First return with their Ginetta G55 GT4.

Then there are two Honda Civic TCRs in the ST-TCR class – one for reigning champions Team Noah, and one for M&K Honda Cars Okegawa Racing.

The ST-Q category, which launched last year as a non-competitive class for manufacturer developed concept cars, will have five entries. The #32 ORC ROOKIE Racing Toyota Corolla Sport H2 Concept and the #55 Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda2 Bio Concept return to action, alongside the debuting #28 ORC ROOKIE Toyota GR86 CNF Concept and #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru BRZ CNF Concept. The surprise is from Endless Sports, who originally announced a move out of ST-Z to ST-1, but have now moved to ST-Q. They will race with a modified version of their title-winning Mercedes-AMG GT4, running outside homologation as a test bed for Endless’ brake systems.

ST-1 has three entries; D’station Racing debuts their new Aston Martin Vantage GT8R, which will face off against the KTM X-Bow GTX from K’s Frontier KTM Cars, and the muta Racing sponsored Toyota GR Supra of Tracy Sports.

There’s healthy numbers in the three production classes taking part: Seven entries in ST-2, six in ST-3, and 14 in ST-5. As outlined last week, ST-4 will be withheld from this race, part of a rotation of the five numbered classes that will sit out one of the five races this year.

As of the start of the weekend, the entry list has been completed.

Entry list current as of 18 March 2022

Feature image courtesy of Naoyuki Hata / STO