Understandably, most of the sports car racing world had its focus on either Sebring or the Nürburgring this past weekend. Meanwhile, within Japan, thousands of fans got their fix of endurance racing with a trip to Mobility Resort Motegi, site of Round 1 of the 2026 ENEOS Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone.
Like last year’s opening Super Taikyu race, the Motegi Super Taikyu 4 Hours Race was a two-day, two-race doubleheader weekend, with both races headlined by the ST-X (GT3) class and its five entries. Qualifying was held on Saturday morning before Race 1, and with a combined time of 3:37.485, Sun Jingzu and star Honda factory driver Kakunoshin Ohta won the pole for the #33 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO. Ohta set a new ST-X course record (1:47.694) during the second leg of the two-stage aggregate qualifying session.
The ST-X and ST-1 cars would share the grid for Race 1 with a single ST-Q car, the #104 Toyota GR Yaris DAT Racing Concept from GR Team SPIRIT, and cars from the ST-3, ST-4, ST-5F and ST-5R production classes. 32 cars started (the ST-5F #222 Honda Cars Tokai Fit4 RS withdrew after an accident in private pre-event practice) Race 1 on Saturday.
Ohta led the first hour in the #33 Mercedes-AMG, but it’d be the #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 of Hiroaki Nagai, Naoya Gamou, Ryo Ogawa, and Koki Saga that picked up the win in a race that was interrupted by six Full Course Yellow (FCY) periods. They were the only ST-X team that started the race with their amateur ‘A Driver’ (Nagai), who put in a solid hour behind the wheel before Saga, Ogawa, and then Gamou took command, completing 122 laps.
Finishing in second was D’station Racing’s brand-new #777 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo making its series debut. Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii, and Yuta Kamimura gave the new 296 GT3 Evo its first podium in Japan, finishing in second place.
And the #33 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes of Sun, Ohta, and Adderly Fong finished third, dropping one position near the end due to a drive-through penalty for overtaking in a yellow flag zone. They still came out around five seconds ahead of the #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG (Daisuke Matsunaga/Tatsuya Kataoka/Yuhki Nakayama/Yuya Motojima) in fourth.
The #47 D’station Porsche 992 GT3 Cup (Tatsuya Hoshino/Tetsuya Tanaka/Kenji Hama/Taiga Kabaki) finished fifth overall and won the ST-1 class by default because of a mechanical problem for the #2 K’s Frontier KTM Cars X-Bow GTX, one of the cars that brought out an FCY during Saturday’s race.
Similarly, the #39 Tracy Sports with RCIT Lexus RC350 (Yuji Takahashi/Takashi Ito/Hitoshi Sakai/Shinya Fujita) won the two-car duel in ST-3, and finished sixth overall – though the new #21 Hitotsuyama Racing BMW M2 Racing looks to be an exciting addition to a class in desperate need of fresh entries.
Any one of three perennial ST-4 contenders could have won the class, but the opening round win went to the #884 SHADE Racing Toyota GR86 (Tatsuya Osaki/Eijiro Shimizu/Shinnosuke Yamada), finishing 13 seconds ahead of the second-place #3 Endless Sports GR86 (Hiroyuki Saka/Togo Suganami/Rikuto Kobayashi/Atsushi Shimatani).
The other strong contender in the class was the #41 Tracy Sports GR86 (Takumi Shima/Yusuke Tomibayashi/Yohei Maruyama/Shun Hashimoto), but it would be kept off the ST-4 podium by the #37 Team NOPRO Mazda Roadster NC (Johnny Ogura/Shunsuke Ozaki/Toshihiko Nogami/Tobio Otani) which finished third. These top four cars completed the overall top ten from Race 1.
Defending ST-5R class champions Murakami Motors and their orange and green #88 Mazda Roadster (Tatsuya Ota/Sena Kuronuma/Soichiro Yoshida) took a come-from-behind victory, overcoming a drive-through penalty for a pit work violation and taking the lead from the #610 Koshido Racing Roadster (Motoharu Sato/Yusaku Shibata/Yasuji Asai/Kengo Yamamoto) with less than ten minutes to go. The new-look #27 Maple Hiroshima Mazda Racing Roadster (Toshiyuki Matsuda/Yuga Furutani/Sota Muto) rounded out the podium.
Murakami Motors’ return to the top step wasn’t a guarantee: The team announced over the off-season that it wouldn’t compete full-time in Super Taikyu, until a new sponsor stepped up to keep the #88 Roadster on the grid.
Back with its third-generation Honda Fit RS, the #4 Team Bride Fit (Yu Ohta/Takuya Shiga/Kuniyuki Haga/Yoshikazu Sobu) would take a comfortable, commanding win in the ST-5 class ahead of the #17 Team NOPRO Mazda Demio DE (Kyohei Kawamura/Misaki Konishi/Yoshihiro Kato/Hiroaki Yamamoto) – two teams that reverted to previous-generation models recently in a bid to improve their form.
Swapping out his STMO President cap for his racing helmet, Akio “Morizo” Toyoda drove the #104 Toyota GR Yaris DAT Concept alongside reigning SUPER GT GT500 Champion Kenta Yamashita, Toyota young driver Tokiya Suzuki, and employee driver Hajime Tadokoro. But GR Team SPIRIT’s race would last only 53 laps before the 8-speed automatic GR Yaris broke down during Toyoda-san’s stint, and the car retired before half-distance.
The front of the grid for Race 2 on Sunday took the ST-X and ST-1 cars and inverted their finishing positions from Race 1. That meant, for the first time, the #2 KTM X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Hiroki Katoh/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Yoshimoto) would start on pole position, alongside the black and gold #44 Team Pop Race Mercedes-AMG. The latter car featured D1GP legend Daigo Saito making his GT3 circuit racing debut, hoping to follow in the footsteps of other drift/endurance crossover stars like Manabu Orido and Nobuteru Taniguchi.
The rest of the grid, consisting of the ST-Z (GT4) and ST-2 classes, along with two more ST-Q concepts, was set from Saturday’s qualifying times.
At the start of Sunday’s race, the #44 Pop Race Mercedes-AMG of Saito drove out to the early lead once the out-of-place KTM yielded, but Motojima in the #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG found a way through and overtook Saito – who spun off at Victory Corner (turn 14).
The race then turned into a Mercedes showdown between TKRI and Craft-Bamboo Racing. Craft-Bamboo started the race with Sun behind the wheel, and with this strategy, they were able to take the lead from TKRI in the second half of the race. During Ohta’s stint in the #33 car, he opened up a lead of over 90 seconds over TKRI’s ‘A Driver’ Matsunaga.
Continuing its recent excellence across Asia, Craft-Bamboo Racing’s trio of Sun, Ohta, and Fong got the win, completing 124 laps. The #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG was second, while the #777 D’station Ferrari was third.
A reported drivetrain problem at half-distance cost the #31 apr Lexus a chance at a weekend sweep, while the #44 Pop Race Mercedes-AMG retired with a suspension failure only 90 minutes into Race 2.
Just like Race 1, the #47 D’station Porsche 992 Cup won the duel for ST-1 after the #2 KTM retired from the race with around 40 minutes to go. The Porsche finished fourth place overall.
But in a close battle for the ST-Z class, it was the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4 of Masaki Kano, Riki Okusa, and Hironobu Yasuda that narrowly held on for victory over the #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of defending champions Kota Matsui, Seita Nonaka, Naoki Hattori, and Hiroki Yoshida.
Kano brought the #34 Audi in for a pit stop just before the Full Course Yellow came out for a stricken ST-2 car, allowing Okusa to take the lead. In the final ten minutes, Okusa would have to withstand pressure from a hard-charging Nonaka, and did exactly that – taking the class win by 0.976 seconds.
In third place was the #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z NISMO GT4 (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Ryuichiro Tomita/Takuro Shinohara/Tsugio Matsuda), putting three makes on the ST-Z podium. The #884 SHADE Racing Toyota was fourth, followed by the best of the ST-Z newcomers, the #8 Aoyama Gakuin Automobile Club Toyota, in fifth, and then the #22 Kokusai Group Sports Team Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport, which had won the pole in its class but fell to sixth.
Maybe the wildest moment of the race came in ST-2, a class that was plagued with mechanical trouble for a lot of strong contenders, like the #72 Nihon Automobile College Civic Type R, and the two Shinryo Racing Team Lancer Evolution Xes (one of which, the #7 car, ran out of fuel on the last lap while in a fight for the win).
And incredibly, the winning #95 Team Spoon Honda Civic Type R of Kazuomi Komatsu, Syun Koide, and Yusuke Mitsui held on to win the race – while on fire!
劇的すぎる優勝 pic.twitter.com/581ltd3KIW
— ちょも (@neu_335DW) March 22, 2026
Despite the crisis in the cockpit, the famous blue and yellow Spoon Civic had just enough life in it to take the win before Koide brought it to a safe stop. The final margin of victory was 0.297 seconds over the #225 KTMS Toyota GR Yaris (Riona Tomishita/Kiyoshi Umegaki/Rin Arakawa). The #743 Honda R&D Challenge Civic (Hiroki Ishigaki/Akira Bito/Tensho Kobayashi) took third in class.
Making its second Super Taikyu appearance, the mid-engined #28 Toyota GR Yaris M Concept (Yasuhiro Ogura/Masahiro Sasaki/Keizo Kato/Takamitsu Matsui) was the highest-ranking ST-Q car, finishing 19th overall out of 24 classified finishers.
The last-place finisher was the other ST-Q car, making its debut, the #61 Subaru High Performance X Version II (Kazuhiro Ito/Hideki Yamauchi/Takuto Iguchi/Masafumi Hanazawa). It suffered a drivetrain issue in the second half of the race, which led to significant repair time, and only 89 laps completed.
The 2026 ENEOS Super Taikyu Series continues next month as the series visits legendary Suzuka Circuit on 18–19 April for the Suzuka Super Taikyu 5 Hours Race.
Images © STMO
