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Jamie Klein

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.

Stream every qualifying session and race of the 2022 Super GT season only on Motorsport.tv.

GT500 entry list: 

Manufacturer

Team

Tyre

No.

Drivers

Nissan

Z GT500

 

 

 

NDDP Racing

Michelin

3

Japan Katsumasa Chiyo

Japan Mitsunori Takaboshi

Team Impul

Bridgestone

12

Belgium Bertrand Baguette

Japan Kazuki Hiramine

NISMO

Michelin

23

Italy Ronnie Quintarelli

Japan Tsugio Matsuda

Kondo Racing

Yokohama

24

Japan Kohei Hirate

Japan Daiki Sasaki

Toyota

GR Supra

 

 

 

 

 

Rookie Racing

Bridgestone

14

Japan Kazuya Oshima

Japan Kenta Yamashita

Racing Project Bandoh

Yokohama

19

Japan Yuji Kunimoto

Japan Sena Sakaguchi

TOM’S


 

 

Bridgestone

 

36

 

France Giuliano Alesi

Japan Sho Tsuboi

37

Japan Ritomo Miyata

France Sacha Fenestraz

Cerumo

Bridgestone

38

Japan Hiroaki Ishiura

Japan Yuji Tachikawa

SARD

Bridgestone

39

Japan Yuhi Sekiguchi

Japan Yuichi Nakayama

Honda

NSX-GT (Type S)

 

 

 

 

ARTA

Bridgestone

8

Japan Tomoki Nojiri

Japan Nirei Fukuzumi

Team Mugen

Dunlop

16

Japan Toshiki Oyu

Japan Ukyo Sasahara

Real Racing

Bridgestone

17

Japan Koudai Tsukakoshi

Japan Nobuharu Matsushita

Nakajima Racing

Dunlop

64

Japan Takuya Izawa

Japan Hiroki Otsu

Team Kunimitsu

Bridgestone

100

Japan Naoki Yamamoto

Japan 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

Japan Hiroki Katoh

Japan Yuui Tsutsumi

4 Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Y

Japan Nobuteru Taniguchi

Japan Tatsuya Kataoka

5 Team Mach Toyota 86 MC Y

Japan Reiji Hiraki

Japan Yusuke Tomibayashi

6 Motoyama Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Y

Japan Satoshi Motoyama

Japan Yoshiaki Katayama

7 BMW Team Studie BMW M4 GT3 M

Japan Seiji Ara

Brazil Augusto Farfus

9 Pacific CarGuy Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 Y

Japan Kei Cozzolino

Japan Naoki Yokomizo

10 Gainer Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 D

Japan Ryuichiro Tomita

Japan Riki Okusa

11 Gainer Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 D

Japan Hironobu Yasuda

Japan Keishi Ishikawa

18 Team UpGarage Honda NSX GT3 Y

Japan Takashi Kobayashi

Japan Kakunoshin Ota

20 Shade Racing Toyota GR86 GT D

Japan Katsuyuki Hiranaka

Japan Eijiro Shimizu

22 R'Qs Motor Sports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Y

Japan Hisashi Wada

Japan Masaki Jyonai

25 Team Tsuchiya Toyota GR Supra GT300 Y

Japan Takamitsu Matsui

Japan Seita Nonaka

30 apr Toyota GR86 GT Y

Japan Hiroaki Nagai

Japan Manabu Orido

31 apr Toyota Prius PHV GR Sport B

Japan Yuhki Nakayama

Japan Koki Saga

34 Busou Drago Corse Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 D

Japan Masataka Yanagida

Japan Yuji Ide

48 NILZZ Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3

Y

 

Japan Taiyou Ida

Japan Yuki Tanaka

50 Arnage Racing Toyota 86 MC Y

Japan Masaki Kano

Japan Ryohei Sakaguchi

52 Saitama Toyopet GB Toyota GR Supra GT300 B

Japan Hiroki Yoshida

Japan Kohta Kawaai

55 ARTA Honda NSX GT3 B

Japan Hideki Mutoh

Japan Iori Kimura

56 Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 Y

Japan Kiyoto Fujinami

Brazil JP de Oliveira

60 LM Corsa Toyota GR Supra GT300 D

Japan Hiroki Yoshimoto

Japan Shunsuke Kohno

61 Subaru/R&D Sport Subaru BRZ D

Japan Takuto Iguchi

Japan Hideki Yamauchi

65 LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 B

Japan Naoya Gamou

Japan Takuro Shinohara

87 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Y

Japan Kosuke Matsuura

Japan Natsu Sakaguchi

88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Y

Japan Takashi Kogure

Japan Yuya Motojima

96 K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3 D

Japan Morio Nitta

Japan Shinichi Takagi

360 Tomei Sports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 Y

Japan Takayuki Aoki

Japan Atsushi Tanaka

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