TOM’S GR Supra is golden in Super GT Fuji 3 Hours

The Fuji GT 3 Hours produced a golden win on Golden Week for reigning Super GT GT500 champions TGR Team TOM’S, Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita at Fuji Speedway. Their No. 36 Toyota GR Supra GT500 came back from a 20-second deficit to win the first of two three-hour endurance races in the 2026 Autobacs Super GT Series.

They led another 1-2 finish for Toyota, ahead of the pole-sitting No. 14 Rookie Racing Toyota of Nirei Fukuzumi and Kazuya Oshima in second place.

Polesitter Fukuzumi was the star of the opening stint of the race. Yamashita was able to run him close in second at first, but would struggle to maintain his pace and concede a large gap to the leader. Meanwhile, TGR Team Cerumo’s hopes of back-to-back wins at the Golden Week classic took a major hit when rookie driver Rikuto Kobayashi received a drive-through penalty for contact with the No. 23 NISMO Nissan Z of Mitsunori Takaboshi.

The damage to the No. 38 Cerumo Toyota would only get worse when Toshiki Oyu was behind the wheel late in the race, forcing the No. 38 to retire with 45 minutes left.

As for the lead battle, after the first round of pit stops, Tsuboi would take over the No. 36 TOM’S Toyota and start cutting down the deficit to the No. 14, now driven by Oshima. Tsuboi got the gap down to under ten seconds as the teams prepared to make their final stops.

The No. 36 TOM’S Toyota came down pit lane with an hour to go, two laps earlier than the No. 14 Rookie Racing Toyota. While Tsuboi stayed in the No. 36 for a double stint to the finish, Rookie Racing opted to change drivers back to Fukuzumi. The difference in pit stop time wasn’t much, but Tsuboi maximized the two-lap undercut and drove past Fukuzumi on his outlap with 56 minutes to go. He wouldn’t look back, taking the win for TOM’S by 8.786s after 115 laps of racing.

Tsuboi, who took his 12th career GT500 win, said: “After Yamashita-san ran strongly to get us in secondnd position in the qualifying sessions, I thought we would be able to compete well in the race. However, in the race, car No. 14 was also strong, which made it a tough race, but I am glad that we were able to realize our goal of getting a second consecutive win. In the latter stages our rivals were the other GR Supra cars, so we had a good idea of what their tiers and other factors were, and I thought we would be stronger in the second half of the race, so I was able to push on with confidence.”

“In the first half, there were some difficulties that kept us from running at our usual pace,” admitted Yamashita, who still took his 11th career win. “In the end, it was good the way Tsuboi-san performed. But since there was a gap to make up, it was good for me to see how he and the team did. When I am asked why we are so strong…. It is thanks to Tsuboi-san and the team. I, not so much… just normal!”

Tsuboi and Yamashita became the first drivers to win the first two rounds of the season in a row in GT500, since NISMO’s Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli did so in 2016. They now lead Fukuzumi/Oshima in the GT500 drivers’ championship by 16 points after two races.

The No. 23 NISMO Nissan (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) held on to finish third, one second ahead of the No. 39 SARD Toyota (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sacha Fenestraz), as Chiyo fended off Fenestraz to prevent a Toyota podium sweep.

The top Honda for the second straight race was the No. 16 ARTA Mugen HRC Prelude-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Ren Sato), which narrowly won its heated duel with the sixth-place No. 24 Kondo Racing Nissan (Teppei Natori/Atsushi Miyake).

Once again it was a race of contrasting fortunes for TOM’S as the No. 37 Toyota (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi) retired from the race with a mechanical failure, triggering the race’s only Full Course Yellow.

GT300

In the GT300 class, Kondo Racing’s No. 56 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 driven by João Paulo de Oliveira and Iori Kimura broke a three-year winless drought in dominant fashion.

The pole-sitting No. 61 R&D Sport Subaru BRZ of Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi led early on but suffered a left-front tire puncture only 40 minutes into Yamauchi’s first stint. That took them out of contention, and a drivetrain issue forced the Subaru to retire with 20 minutes left.

That elevated the No. 31 apr Lexus LC500h of Miki Koyama to the lead, but Oliveira in the GT-R would take the lead just before Koyama brought the Lexus down pit lane for the first pit stop.

Saitama Green Brave’s No. 52 Toyota GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshida/Seita Nonaka) was caught out by the full course yellow: Nonaka needed to pit, but could not come to pit lane before the FCY was deployed – leading to a 60-second stop-and-hold penalty for a pit work infraction. Despite this, Yoshida and Nonaka would salvage ninth place.

Kimura and Oliveira, meanwhile, would take control at the front and win the class, completing 107 laps.

“Since every year there are new cars entering in GT300, it is very competitive and winning is difficult, hard to win I believe,” said an emotional Oliveira. “As for why it has taken us so long to get this win, I think we won because we have never given up. I am grateful for the presence of our manager (Masahiko) Kondo and Kimura-san, and for my wife came here today to support as well.”

“I am glad that I was able to show my gratitude for manager Kondo, having brought me to the team this year,” added Kimura. "As for the opening round – when I get nervous, I am the type that ties up... so this time I really tried to keep calm and be ready for my turn at the wheel and making sure to hand the car over properly to the next. I want to thank everyone.”

The No. 666 Seven x Seven Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (Sven Müller/Kiyoto Fujinami) finished second on the road, but Müller received a ten-second time penalty early in the race for a collision with the No. 60 LM corsa Lexus LC500h, which dropped the Porsche to fourth.

This elevated the No. 65 LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami/Haruki Kurosawa, DNS) to second place, and the No. 31 apr LC500h (Kazuto Kotaka/Miki Koyama/Charlie Wurz) to third, giving Koyama her second career podium and a first for Wurz in his series debut.

The No. 2 INGING Toyota GR86 (Yuui Tsutsumi/Kazuhisa Urabe) finished fifth, followed by the No. 32 Rookie Racing Mercedes-AMG (Hiroaki Ishiura/Kamui Kobayashi) in sixth. It was a whirlwind weekend for super-sub Kobayashi; despite all his accomplishments he still had to take Super GT’s rookie orientation test in Sunday’s free practice session to be certified to race, but he came away with good points in his first GT300 class start.

Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg retained their lead in the GT300 standings after finishing seventh in the No. 777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

A longer-than-it-should-have-been three-month break follows, before the Autobacs Super GT Series returns to Fuji Speedway for the 300km race on Aug. 2

• RACER Network and the RACER+ app are the broadcast home for Super GT in the U.S. and Canada. All seven rounds of the 2026 Super GT Series will be broadcast live and on-demand.