Three weeks after announcing its drivers for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, Toyota Gazoo Racing has confirmed its teams and drivers for domestic racing series in 2024 – including the Autobacs SUPER GT Series and Eneos Super Taikyu Series.
In SUPER GT, Toyota will continue to be represented in the premier GT500 class by six Toyota GR Supra GT500s. The GR Supra GT500, which won four races last season, has been updated with revised aerodynamics in 2024.
Defending GT500 champion team TOM’S Racing will continue to enter two cars as TGR Team au TOM’S and TGR Team Deloitte TOM’S.
Two-time and defending GT500 Drivers’ champion Sho Tsuboi will continue to pilot the championship-winning #1/36 au TOM’S GR Supra as he pursues his third championship. He’ll be joined by 2019 GT500 champion, Kenta Yamashita, who moves over from the ROOKIE Racing team.
There’s no change in the line-up of the #37 Deloitte TOM’s GR Supra, as Ukyo Sasahara and Giuliano Alesi return for their third season together.
ROOKIE Racing (TGR Team Eneos ROOKIE) will be led by 2019 GT500 champion Kazuya Oshima, who has been with the team since its SUPER GT debut in 2020. He will be joined by 26-year-old Nirei Fukuzumi, who joins Toyota after a decade-long affiliation with Honda. Fukuzumi won the 2019 GT300 championship and finished runner-up in the 2021 GT500 standings.
At Team Cerumo, Hiroaki Ishiura stays as the senior driver of the Toyota GT500 fleet. Taking the place of the retired three-time GT500 champion, Yuji Tachikawa, is 25-year-old Toshiki Oyu, another incoming transfer from Honda who scored his first GT500 class win in 2023.
KeePer, the brand of car cleaning products and services, will replace ZENT as the title sponsor of the Cerumo team, now competing as TGR Team KeePer Cerumo. ZENT will continue as an associate sponsor of the team, but has decided to end its tenure as title sponsor, which began in 2005.
Fukuzumi and Oyu, the newest additions to the Toyota Gazoo Racing roster, first appeared as Toyota drivers last week at Suzuka during the Super Formula post-season winter test.
The lineups at TGR Team SARD and TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh remain unchanged. 2021 GT500 champion Yuhi Sekiguchi and Yuichi Nakayama will return to pilot the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra, and the pair of Yuji Kunimoto and Sena Sakaguchi will continue to drive the #19 WedsSport Advan GR Supra.
Toyota’s GT500 teams will run with Bridgestone Potenza tyres, except TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh, which continues its long-standing partnership with Yokohama Advan as its tyre supplier.
Teams and drivers that will represent Toyota in the GT300 class will be announced at a later date.
Eight of Toyota’s GT500 drivers will also represent the manufacturer in the Super Formula Championship: Tsuboi, Sasahara, Sakaguchi, Oyu, Yamashita, Fukuzumi, Oshima, and Kunimoto – plus Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC driver/team principal Kamui Kobayashi, Kazuto Kotaka, and reigning Formula 2 Champion Theo Pourchaire.
Toyota Gazoo Racing will continue to support entries in the Super Taikyu ST-Q class, supporting innovative and sustainable automotive concepts. The company will also enter select Nürburgring Langstrecken Series events with the aim of returning to the world-famous Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2025.
Ten drivers have officially been nominated to represent Toyota in these efforts: The aforementioned Alesi, Ishiura, Oshima, Tsuboi and Yamashita – plus Tatsuya Kataoka, Naoya Gamou, Shunsuke Kohno, Masahiro Sasaki, and Takamitsu Matsui.
Details of these programmes will be announced at a later date.
Images © Toyota
