Nissan and Nissan Motorsports & Customising Co. Ltd. (NMC) have announced their 2026 motorsports activities, including the presentation of the manufacturer’s three SUPER GT GT500 cars.
The embattled manufacturer had already announced a downsized GT500 programme in 2026, along with its GT500 drivers, in December. Today’s announcement reveals the liveries for the three Nissan Z NISMO GT500s, as well as a major move for Kondo Racing.
Kondo Racing has changed from Yokohama Advan to Bridgestone Potenza tyres for the 2026 GT500 campaign, the last season of open tyre competition in SUPER GT. The #24 Realize Corporation Z of Atsushi Miyake and Teppei Natori will now sport the same tyres as the flagship NISMO squad and Team Impul.
Meanwhile, Daiki Sasaki will stay with the manufacturer as the GT500 reserve driver after driving for the now-defunct NISMO NDDP team last year. Masataka Yanagida and Ronnie Quintarelli will continue in their roles as Executive Advisor and NISMO Ambassador and Advisor.
The tyre supplier change on the GT500 side of Kondo Racing does not impact the team’s GT300 effort, still using Yokohama tyres as one of four GT300 teams continuing to field the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.
Two-time GT300 Champion João Paulo de Oliveira returns to Kondo Racing to drive the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R. He is joined by a new co-driver, former Honda factory driver Iori Kimura. Kimura gave Team Mach its first-ever GT300 class victory at Mobility Resort Motegi in November (using the Toyota/Dome 86 Mother Chassis with its GTA-badged Nissan V8).
Kimura replaces 2025 GT300 championship runner-up and two-time GT500 Champion Kohei Hirate, whose factory contract with Nissan ended after the 2025 season.
HELM Motorsports, NILZZ Racing, and Tomei Sports will continue to enter GT-Rs in GT300. Brothers Yuya and Reiji Hiraki have already been confirmed as drivers for the #62 HELM GT-R.
Amateur drivers Taiyo Ida (NILZZ) and Atsushi Tanaka (Tomei Sports) have also been confirmed to return with their respective teams, with other driver announcements to be made in the coming weeks.
Nissan will also continue to provide technical support to Gainer and its #11 Nissan Fairlady Z GT300, entering its third season of competition. Ryuichiro Tomita and Kazuki Oki will return to drive the #11 Gainer Tanax Z in 2026.
Outside of SUPER GT, Nissan’s sports car racing involvement will include two GT-R NISMO GT3s competing in SRO series across Asia.
Team 5Zigen returns to GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS with its #500 GT-R, featuring a brand-new driver line-up in the Silver class. 2001 GT500 Champion Takayuki Aoki, Nissan GT500 driver Miyake, and former Nissan Driver Development Programme (NDDP) academy member Kimiya Sato have been announced as drivers for the effort.
Tomei Sports will also continue to run in the SRO Japan Cup series’ GT3 Am category with the #360 GT-R driven by Masaaki Nishikawa and Atsushi Tanaka.
Nissan’s GT4 programme will continue, exclusively in Japan in the Eneos Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone.
In Super Taikyu, Team ZeroOne and Naniwa Denso Impul will each enter a Nissan Z NISMO GT4 in the series’ ST-Z (GT4) class, with Team ZeroOne downsizing to just one car.
Takashi Matsumoto, Kazuki Hiramine, Kazuki Oki, and second-generation driver Jules Kazuki Tréluyer will continue to drive the blue #20 Impul Z, while Team ZeroOne will have Ryuichiro Otsuka, Ryuichiro Tomita, Takuro Shinohara, and legendary driver Tsugio Matsuda behind the wheel of its red #25 Z.
Today’s announcement by Nissan does not mention any ST-X (GT3) or ST-3 programmes in Super Taikyu. Following the demise of the Nissan Z GT4 programme in SRO America, Nissan will shift its focus in North American racing towards the grassroots level with the launch of the track-tuned NISMO GT-Z – developed in collaboration with Chris Forsberg (Forsberg Racing).
Images © Nissan, GTA, SRO, STMO
