Super GT swings back into action at Fuji

The Autobacs Super GT Series wasn’t originally meant to go 90 days between race meetings, but the unfortunate cancellation of a planned trip to Petronas Sepang International Circuit in June – with no replacement – means that this Sunday’s race at Fuji Speedway will be the first time that Super GT cars race in anger in three months.

It’s the series’ second consecutive trip to Fuji, following the three-hour endurance race held during Japan’s Golden Week holiday period. This Sunday’s race, which airs live on RACER+ and RACER Network starting at 12:20am ET, is a bit shorter at only 300 kilometers (or 66 laps).

However, the complexion of the Fuji GT 300km race should be much different. It’s a shorter race, though in much hotter temperatures than the Fuji 3 Hour, and with the top teams in the championship carrying much more Success Weight than three months ago.

And as a critical stretch of three summertime races – Fuji, Suzuka, and Sportsland Sugo – begins, these key questions will be answered over the course of the weekend.

How much impact will Super GT’s success refueling restrictors have?

It’s highly unlikely that the No. 36 TOM’S Toyota GR Supra of Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita will win three straight races to open the 2026 season, or become the first GT500 team to win both Fuji races since 2005. Already, Tsuboi and Yamashita have amassed a healthy lead in the GT500 championship, but the expectation is that the white and orange No. 36 Toyota will have to resort to damage limitation over the next few races, picking up points where it can.

The car will be loaded with 80 kilograms of Success Weight this weekend, two for every point that Tsuboi and Yamashita have scored. In reality, the 80 kg figure is made up of multiple components: 50 kg of ballast weight, a tighter fuel flow restrictor in the engine which cuts the fuel flow rate by roughly 2.5 percent, and thus, also cuts the horsepower – not ideal at a track with a nearly mile-long front straightaway.

The No. 36 Toyota has been dominant, but is paying the price for it with Success Weight.

Also included in the nominal 80 kg figure is the first Success Refueling Restrictor, which is installed in the No. 36’s fuel rig and should add roughly five seconds to each pit stop. This is the first time that it has been used in the GT500 class, and adds a new variable for TOM’S to try and overcome.

In their recent run of three consecutive GT500 titles, the No. 36 TOM’S Toyota has consistently maximized its performance potential regardless of the Success Weight it’s carrying. The team also boasts one of the strongest pit crews in the GT500 class, who will now have to work around a five-second success penalty this weekend, and for the next few rounds until the season finale at Motegi at the latest.

If not the championship leaders, who could keep Toyota’s winning form alive?

On paper, many of the other strong Toyota teams have enough Success Weight to limit their potential for a win this weekend. But one team surprisingly has no points in the first two races – and shockingly, it’s the other TOM’S Toyota, the black and green No. 37 of Ukyo Sasahara and Giuliano Alesi.

Sasahara and Alesi’s first two races of the season have been plagued with mechanical issues that have kept them out of contention, but with no points, theirs is also the only Toyota GR Supra not carrying any Success Weight, and the good news is that both drivers have generally performed well over the last two seasons.

One would also consider the No. 19 Racing Project Bandoh Toyota (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi) since it’s carrying only a measly 2 kg of Success Weight, but any on-track success would be predicated on how its Yokohama tires match up to the vast majority of teams on Bridgestones.

Will it be Honda or Nissan’s turn to stand on the top step?

Between the five Honda HRC Prelude-GTs and three Nissan Z NISMO GT500s, none of them have been saddled with more than 30 kg of Success Weight – giving each a good chance to snap Toyota’s winning streak. But only Nissan has joined Toyota on the podium this year.

In Okayama, it was Team Impul’s blue No. 12 driven by Kazuki Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette. In Fuji three months ago, Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi drove the red No. 23 NISMO Nissan to a third-place run. That leaves only the No. 24 Kondo Racing Nissan left to take a podium, and since switching to Bridgestone rubber and partnering Teppei Natori with Atsushi Miyake, the team has fared well in the first two races, scoring points in each.

Honda, meanwhile, is still trying to maximize the window for its HRC Prelude-GT.

Team HRC ARTA Mugen driver Kakunoshin Ohta said to RACER in between rounds, “It’s difficult to explain; it’s the debut year for us with our new car, so we have a lot of stuff to improve. But Honda is doing good. As everyone knows, the No. 36 Supra is always fast, always super-quick, and we have to catch them up. We are improving, in some points, we are already matching the level with the Civic (Type R-GT, which raced from 2024–2025). But we’re still working hard on it; the results don’t show it, but we are making an effort.”

Ohta and co-driver Hiroki Otsu have also gone without scoring a point in each of the first two races, a shocking start to the year for the No. 8 ARTA Mugen Prelude-GT. Its sister car, the No. 16 ARTA Mugen Honda of Tomoki Nojiri and Ren Sato, currently leads the Honda contingent in the standings with two top-six finishes.

It's a wide-open battle in GT300.

Can any GT300 teams break away from the pack in the championship fight?

GT300’s championship table, in contrast to GT500, has the top four teams placed within a four-point spread. At the top is the No. 777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg, the winners at Okayama.

Behind them, the No. 31 apr Lexus LC500h (Kazuto Kotaka/Miki Koyama), the No. 2 INGING Toyota GR86 (Yuui Tsutsumi/Kazuhisa Urabe), and the No. 65 K2 R&D LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami) are all in the mix, and not too far back, you’ll find the No. 56 Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 (João Paulo de Oliveira/Iori Kimura) which won the Fuji 3 Hours, trailing by eight points.

All five of these cars will carry Success Refueling Restrictors this weekend, equivalent to an additional 10 seconds in the pits for the No. 777 Aston Martin, and five seconds extra for the four other cars. Should they stumble, five other teams and drivers are within 20 points of the lead, eager to jump to the forefront of the championship fight.

One important point to note is that with Sepang’s cancellation, there will be no ‘drop score’ and all seven rounds will count towards each team’s final tallies at the end of the season.

Will a new, yet familiar combination bring a struggling pre-season favorite back into contention?

In between the Fuji rounds, Ponos Racing made a stunning announcement by dismissing driver Kei Cozzolino and replacing him with Shintaro Kawabata for the rest of 2026. The decision came after two lackluster rounds with no points scored and a DNF at the Fuji 3 Hours, not what was expected for a well-resourced team with race-winning aspirations.

Cozzolino, who also boasts FIA WEC and IMSA experience, was instrumental in establishing Ponos Racing and the new Ferrari 296 GT3 as a competitive force from its debut season two years ago. He also coached team founder Yorikatsu Tsujiko during the formative years of his own career as an amateur racing driver.

His absence will be a disappointment, but Kawabata is no slouch behind the wheel of a GT3 car. Last year, the 33-year-old won the SRO Japan Cup GT3 title, driving a Ferrari 296 GT3 for former Super GT mainstay Hitotsuyama Racing. It was with that same team that he and co-driver Takuro Shinohara won at Mobility Resort Motegi in November 2021, during Hitotsuyama’s long partnership with Audi Sport. Five years later, Shinohara and Kawabata will reunite and try and get Ponos Racing back in contention at the front of the GT300 field.

Ferrari’s chances are also boosted by fellow customer team Velorex (Yoshiaki Katayama/Niklas Krütten) receiving its new 296 GT3 Evo during the three-month break, putting it on level ground with Ponos Racing and CarGuy MKS Racing.

• Watch the Super GT Fuji 300km race live starting this Sunday at 12:20am ET on RACER+ and RACER Network in the U.S. and Canada. Speed City Broadcasting commentators Jonathan Green and Jon Massengale will provide English-language commentary.