au TOM’S dominate at Super GT season opener for third straight Okayama win

Written by Tarun Suresh - Edited by Pranav Sharma

Credit: GTA

The season opener for Super GT, held at Okayama International Circuit, had the Cerumo on pole. Fellow Supras, the reigning champion au TOM’S and the ROOKIE Racing cars, lined up second and third, ready to give the pole sitter a difficult path to victory.

In GT300, it was the Aston Martin Vantage on pole, with the Inging Lexus and the apr Lexus starting close by in second and third.

The Race started with pole sitter Toshiki Oyu in the Cerumo leading the pack and pulling away from Kenta Yamashita in second in the au TOM’S car.

Similarly, in GT300, Tomonobu Fujii, behind the wheel of the Aston Martin, led from pole without much competition from the second-place Inging car and started building a gap to second.

Bertrand Baguette in the Impul was quick to make moves, jumping from seventh up to fourth in three laps. By Lap 7, he passed Nirei Fukuzumi into third down the Turn 5 hairpin.

The apr GR86 spun around into the gravel just around then, but was able to recover and continue with the Race.

While Oyu initially developed a decent lead, navigating lapped traffic brought Yamashita in the No.36 au TOM’S Supra right to the back of his gearbox.

Credit: GTA

Once clear of traffic, Oyu started pulling away again, and this time it was Yamashita who had to defend as a speedy Baguette reeled in the reigning champion with his eyes set on second place. Baguette, however, could not make his way past Yamashita and started dropping back after a couple of laps.

GT300 also had a battle for second. Miki Koyama in the apr Lexus had closed the gap to the Inging Lexus in second and kept looking for a way past. This battle helped Fujii, who kept extending his lead from the two.

Kazuki Oki in the Gainer Nissan had an off, but was able to keep going.

On Lap 19, Green Brave was served a drive-through penalty for jumping the start.

On Lap 28, Koyama, in third, was the first to pit. The K-tunes Lexus in seventh also pitted on that Lap, but had a slow stop that cost almost 10 extra seconds. Both cars had driver changes, with Kazuto Kotaka getting in the apr machine and Shinichi Takagi in the other Lexus.

The Kunimitsu car was the first of the GT500s to pit. The Bandoh Supra and the No.23 Nissan also followed. The Honda Prelude, which was struggling with the tyres and had already been passed by the No.37 TOM’S car and dropped to last, also came into the pits.

The No.16 ARTA came into the pits a Lap later, coming out ahead of the Kunimitsu car, which it had been struggling to get past before the pit stops.

Credit: GTA

The au TOM’S car was the first of the top five to pit and came in on Lap 32, the four-time champion Sho Tsuboi hopping into the car. The leading Cerumo followed the next Lap, and the car was handed to Rikuto Kobayashi, who was now leading his first Race Lap in GT500.

It didn’t take long for Tsuboi, with his tyres warmed up, to close the gap to Kobayashi, who couldn’t get his tyres up to temperature in time. Tsuboi’s fellow TOM’S driver, Ukyo Sasahara, was a Lap down, and good teamwork had Sasahara box the rookie behind himself, allowing Tsuboi to make a clean pass around the outside of Turn 5.

The LEON Racing Mercedes had gotten ahead of the apr Lexus when it pitted two laps after the Lexus. The two were battling it out for a net third position.

On Lap 40, the Tsuchiya Supra stopped on track temporarily before resuming again.

The Inging Lexus came in on Lap 41, 16 laps after its main rival for the podium, the apr Lexus did. The overcut worked perfectly for them as they exited the pits three seconds ahead of the apr Lexus, which was still locked behind the LEON Racing Mercedes.

It wasn’t until Lap 48 that Kotaka in the apr Lexus got past the LEON Racing car. Troubles did not end for the reigning champions as the Goodsmile Racing car closed in and, after an overtake on the outside of Turn 5 on Lap 54, got past into fourth.

Credit: GTA

The TOM’S car entered the pit lane and retired after an issue with the car.

With five laps to go, the battle for fourth in GT500 intensified as Sacha Fenestraz in the SARD Supra closed in on fellow Toyota, the ROOKIE Racing car with Kazuya Oshima behind the wheel.

In GT300, it was Daniil Kvyat making his moves up the field, climbing from 10th to sixth in his stint. He drove past the Green Brave GR86 for sixth. The troubles for the GR86 didn’t end there as the K-tunes Lexus made a lunge for seventh.

The GT500 battle for fourth caught up to this GT300 battle, and the Green Brave car made contact with the ROOKIE Racing car, but avoided significant damage. The K-tunes Lexus eventually got past the GR86.

When the chequered flag was waved on Lap 82, it was the au TOM’S car that crossed the line first, winning the Race for the third year in a row. The pole sitter, Cerumo, was second, around 20 seconds behind the Race winner, giving Kobayashi a podium on his debut. The No.12 Impul Nissan rounded off the podium places.

Oshima in the ROOKIE Racing Supra held off the SARD Supra for fourth, with the latter finishing fifth. The No.16 ARTA Mugen was the leading Honda, finishing sixth on the Prelude’s debut.

Credit: GTA

In GT300, it was the Aston Martin that won the Race from pole. The Inging Lexus was 11 seconds behind in second. The apr Lexus finished third for the team’s first podium since the 2024 season finale, and Koyama’s first.

The Goodsmile Racing AMG was around a second back in fourth, and further behind them were the reigning champions, the LEON Racing Mercedes, rounding off the top five.

Round 2 of the 2026 Super GT season will be held on the first weekend of May at the Fuji International Speedway.