SUPER GT reveals 42-car entry list for Okayama opener

All 43 cars that featured on the full-season entry list unveiled back in February will appear for the curtain-raiser on April 16-17 with the exception of the #244 Max Racing Toyota GR Supra in the GT300 class.

As previously reported by Motorsport.com, Max Racing is sitting out the opener following the death of team owner Tsuyoshi Oono last month, sidelining drivers Atsushi Miyake and Kimiya Sato.

However, the team has since announced that it is planning to return from May's second round at Fuji Speedway onwards.

There are no surprises on the GT500 portion of the entry list for Okayama, with all 15 cars that participated in both pre-season tests last month set to be on the grid with unchanged driver line-ups.

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GT500 entry list: 

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

In the GT300 class, which is reduced to 27 cars in the absence of the Max Racing team, there are some additions and changes to the driver line-ups compared to the official pre-season tests.

Team Mach has announced that its Toyota 86 MC, one of only two so-called 'Mother Chassis' cars in the field, will be driven full-time this season by Reiji Hiraki and rookie Yusuke Tomibayashi.

Esports champion Tomibayashi came out on top in a three-way driver evaluation test at Okayama over fellow Super Taikyu racers Masaya Kono and Kazuya Oshima (not to be confused with the Toyota factory driver), and drove the #5 Toyota single-handedly in the more recent Fuji test.

#5 Machsyaken Air Buster MC86 (Photo by: Masahide Kamio)

Elsewhere, as reported by Motorsport.com, Pacific CarGuy Racing gets an all-pro line-up of Kei Cozzolino and Naoki Yokomizo for the Okayama opener, with gentleman racer Takeshi Kimura instead taking part in the clashing European Le Mans Series curtain-raiser at Paul Ricard.

Yokomizo substituted for Kimura on two occasions last year and was also present alongside Cozzolino and Kimura for the Fuji pre-season test at the wheel of the team's Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo.

BMW Team Studie meanwhile has Augusto Farfus provisionally listed alongside Seiji Ara, but like Kimura, Farfus is expected to participate in the ELMS opener that weekend instead.

Should the Brazilian not race as expected, the team's third driver Tsubasa Kondo, who partnered Ara for both official pre-season tests, would take Farfus's place aboard the #7 BMW M4 GT3.

Yuki Tanaka has meanwhile been finalised as Taiyou Ida (previously known as Taiyou Iida)'s teammate for the new campaign aboard the #48 NILZZ Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

The Gainer squad, which suffered chassis damage to its #10 GT-R in a crash at the Fuji pre-season test, is set to be on the grid at Okayama with regular pairing Ryuichiro Tomita and newcomer Riki Okusa.

UPDATE: An entry list for the ELMS race at Paul Ricard released on Tuesday did not feature Farfus with his BHK Motorsport LMP2 team - clearing the way for the Brazilian to take part at Okayama after all.

GT300 class entry list:

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	Motoyama Racing	Audi R8 LMS GT3	Y	Satoshi Motoyama  Yoshiaki Katayama
7	BMW Team Studie	BMW M4 GT3	M	Seiji Ara  Augusto Farfus
9	Pacific CarGuy Racing	Ferrari 488 GT3	Y	Kei Cozzolino  Naoki Yokomizo
10	Gainer	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	D	Ryuichiro Tomita  Riki Okusa
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
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
52	Saitama Toyopet GB	Toyota GR Supra GT300	B	Hiroki Yoshida  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
360	Tomei Sports	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	Y	Takayuki Aoki  Atsushi Tanaka