Fuji has been a Toyota stronghold for the past couple of seasons, with the Shizuoka Prefecture track's kilometre-long main straight playing to the strengths of the slippery, low-drag GR Supra GT500.
However, that could all change this time round with the introduction of the new Nissan Z and Honda's updated Type S-based NSX-GT, as well as the changes Toyota has made to the Supra since last year.
Toyota got its campaign off to a winning start last month at Okayama, with the #14 Rookie Racing car of Kenta Yamashita and Kazuya Oshima taking the spoils, but Honda and Nissan each managed to get a car on the podium as well, a clear sign of a the fantastic three-way battle to come in GT500.
Yamashita and Oshima will be hard-pressed to repeat their Okayama win however as they are saddled with the maximum 42kg of success ballast, with each point earned worth 2kg of extra weight.
Among those hoping to capitalise on having low success ballast will be the #36 TOM'S crew (Sho Tsuboi/Giuliano Alesi, 10kg), the Impul Nissan squad (Bertrand Baguette/Kazuki Hiramine, 8kg), and Honda outfits ARTA (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi, 2kg) and Real Racing (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita, 4kg), which won last year's Fuji Golden Week race.
Strategy will also play an important role, with each car having to make two pitstops instead of the normal single stop.
In the GT300 class, every point so far is worth 3kg of ballast, meaning the Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 that won at Okayama (Joao Paulo de Oliveira/Kiyoto Fujinami) is saddled with 60kg of ballast.
Toyota's GR Supra GT300 traditionally goes well around Fuji, with the LM Corsa team (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno) keen to add to its pair of victories at the track last year. Another car to keep an eye on is the Team LeMans Audi R8 GT3 LMS Evo II, as ex-Formula 1 racer Roberto Merhi makes his debut.
Max Racing also makes its return after sitting out the Okayama opener, bringing the field up to 28 cars in GT300 and 43 in total.
SUPER GT time schedule for Fuji, Round 2
Times are Local/UK time (GMT+1)/EDT/PDT
Tuesday May 3
Free practice (1h45 minutes) – 9.00am/1.00am/8.00pm (Monday)/5.00pm (Monday)
Qualifying – 3pm/7am/2am/11pm (Monday)
Wednesday May 4
Warm-up – 1.10pm/5.10am/12.10am/9.10pm (Tuesday)
Race (100 laps) – 2.30pm/6.30am/1.30am/10.30pm (Tuesday)
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SUPER GT entry list for Fuji, Round 2
GT500 class:
Manufacturer | Team | Tyre | No. | Drivers |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nissan Z GT500
| NDDP Racing | Michelin | 3 | Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi |
Team Impul | Bridgestone | 12 | Bertrand Baguette Kazuki Hiramine | |
NISMO | Michelin | 23 | Ronnie Quintarelli Tsugio Matsuda | |
Kondo Racing | Yokohama | 24 | Kohei Hirate Daiki Sasaki | |
Toyota GR Supra
| Rookie Racing | Bridgestone | 14 | Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita |
Racing Project Bandoh | Yokohama | 19 | Yuji Kunimoto Sena Sakaguchi | |
TOM’S
| Bridgestone
| 36
| Giuliano Alesi Sho Tsuboi | |
37 | Ritomo Miyata Sacha Fenestraz | |||
Cerumo | Bridgestone | 38 | Hiroaki Ishiura Yuji Tachikawa | |
SARD | Bridgestone | 39 | Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuichi Nakayama | |
Honda NSX-GT (Type S)
| ARTA | Bridgestone | 8 | Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi |
Team Mugen | Dunlop | 16 | Toshiki Oyu Ukyo Sasahara | |
Real Racing | Bridgestone | 17 | Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita | |
Nakajima Racing | Dunlop | 64 | Takuya Izawa Hiroki Otsu | |
Team Kunimitsu | Bridgestone | 100 | Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino |
GT300 class:
No. | Team | Car | Tyre | Drivers |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 | Inging | Toyota GR86 GT | B | Hiroki Katoh Yuui Tsutsumi |
4 | Goodsmile Racing | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Y | Nobuteru Taniguchi Tatsuya Kataoka |
5 | Team Mach | Toyota 86 MC | Y | Reiji Hiraki Yusuke Tomibayashi |
6 | Team LeMans | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | Y | Yoshiaki Katayama Roberto Merhi Shintaro Kawabata |
7 | BMW Team Studie | BMW M4 GT3 | M | Seiji Ara Augusto Farfus Tsubasa Kondo |
9 | Pacific CarGuy Racing | Ferrari 488 GT3 | Y | Kei Cozzolino Takeshi Kimura |
10 | Gainer | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | D | Ryuichiro Tomita Riki Okusa Yusuke Shiotsu |
11 | Gainer | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | D | Hironobu Yasuda Keishi Ishikawa |
18 | Team UpGarage | Honda NSX GT3 | Y | Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ota |
20 | Shade Racing | Toyota GR86 GT | D | Katsuyuki Hiranaka Eijiro Shimizu |
22 | R'Qs Motor Sports | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Y | Hisashi Wada Masaki Jyonai |
25 | Team Tsuchiya | Toyota GR Supra GT300 | Y | Takamitsu Matsui Seita Nonaka |
30 | apr | Toyota GR86 GT | Y | Hiroaki Nagai Manabu Orido Hibiki Taira |
31 | apr | Toyota Prius PHV GR Sport | B | Yuhki Nakayama Koki Saga |
34 | Busou Drago Corse | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | D | Masataka Yanagida Yuji Ide |
48 | NILZZ Racing | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | Y
| Taiyou Ida Yuki Tanaka |
50 | Arnage Racing | Toyota 86 MC | Y | Masaki Kano Ryohei Sakaguchi Takeshi Suehiro |
52 | Saitama Toyopet GB | Toyota GR Supra GT300 | B | Togo Suganami Kohta Kawaai |
55 | ARTA | Honda NSX GT3 | B | Hideki Mutoh Iori Kimura |
56 | Kondo Racing | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | Y | Kiyoto Fujinami JP de Oliveira |
60 | LM Corsa | Toyota GR Supra GT300 | D | Hiroki Yoshimoto Shunsuke Kohno |
61 | Subaru/R&D Sport | Subaru BRZ | D | Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi |
65 | LEON Racing | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | B | Naoya Gamou Takuro Shinohara |
87 | JLOC | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | Y | Kosuke Matsuura Natsu Sakaguchi |
88 | JLOC | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | Y | Takashi Kogure Yuya Motojima |
96 | K-tunes Racing | Lexus RC F GT3 | D | Morio Nitta Shinichi Takagi |
244 | Max Racing | Toyota GR Supra GT300 | Y | Kimiya Sato Atsushi Miyake |
360 | Tomei Sports | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | Y | Takayuki Aoki Atsushi Tanaka Yusaku Shibata |
Current SUPER GT championship standings
GT500 class:
Pos. | Team/Car | Drivers | Points | Ballast |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rookie Racing Toyota |
Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita | 21 | 42kg |
2 | Kunimitsu Honda
|
Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino | 15 | 30kg |
3 | NISMO Nissan | Ronnie Quintarelli Tsugio Matsuda | 11 | 22kg |
4 | Cerumo Toyota |
Yuji Tachikawa Hiroaki Ishiura | 8 | 16kg |
5 | NDDP Nissan |
Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi | 6 | 12kg |
6 | TOM'S Toyota | Giuliano Alesi Sho Tsuboi | 5 | 10kg |
7 | Impul Nissan | Bertrand Baguette Kazuki Hiramine | 4 | 8kg |
8 | SARD Toyota |
Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuichi Nakayama | 3 | 6kg |
9 | Real Racing Honda |
Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita | 2 | 4kg |
10 | ARTA Honda |
Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi | 1 | 2kg |
GT300 class:
Pos. | Team/Car | Drivers | Points | Ballast |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kondo Racing Nissan |
Kiyoto Fujinami JP de Oliveira | 20 | 60kg |
2 | UpGarage Honda |
Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ota | 15 | 45kg |
3 | LEON Mercedes |
Naoya Gamou Takuro Shinohara | 11 | 33kg |
4 | Pacific CarGuy Ferrari |
Kei Cozzolino Naoki Yokomizo | 8 | 24kg |
5 | LeMans Audi |
Satoshi Motoyama Yoshiaki Katayama | 6 | 18kg |
6 | Gainer Nissan |
Ryuichiro Tomita Riki Okusa | 5 | 15kg |
7 | Goodsmile Mercedes |
Nobuteru Taniguchi Tatsuya Kataoka | 4 | 12kg |
8 | JLOC Lamborghini |
Kosuke Matsuura Natsu Sakaguchi | 3 | 9kg |
9 | Subaru |
Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi | 3 | 9kg |
10 | Gainer Nissan |
Hironobu Yasuda Keishi Ishikawa | 1 | 3kg |