Super GT Preview: Round 1 Okayama GT 300KM

Written by Tarun Suresh, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri

Credit: GT Association

The 2026 Super GT season is set to begin this week at the Okayama International Circuit, which has hosted the season opener since 2021.

The layout for the weekend

The Okayama International Circuit spans 3.7 km (2.2 mi) over 11 corners, with turns 1, 5 and 8 being prime overtaking spots.

Team and Drivers (GT500)

The 2026 Super GT Season has had some major driver reshuffles. Nissan has downsized to a 3-car lineup, with the No.3 NISMO Nissan being discontinued. Their pace remains impressive with the No.12 Impul Nissan and the No.23 NISMO being third and fifth fastest in the Pre-Season Tests held at Okayama.

Honda have a near-complete overhaul of their driver lineup. The biggest of which is the return of Kakunoshin Ohta, who will be driving the No.8 ARTA Mugen Prelude alongside Hiroki Otsu.

The biggest change in the Honda camp in GT500 is, of course, the introduction of the Prelude GT, with this model taking the place of the Honda Civic after a mostly underwhelming two years for the latter. 

The No.100 Stanley Kunimitsu piloted by Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino has been the most impressive of the Hondas in the Pre-Season Tests, consistently outperforming their Honda peers. 

Makino was the first to test the new Prelude GT. It was the No.17 Real Racing, however, that was the leading Honda in the tests and was eighth overall. It’s driven by Koudai Tsukakoshi and Honda’s up-and-coming talent Yuto Nomura, who is making his GT500 debut this weekend.

Credit: GT Association

Toyota’s rising star Rikuto Kobayashi is making his debut in GT500 after an impressive rookie season for CarGuy MKS Racing, where he won one race, scored two podiums and one pole position, partnered by Zak O’Sullivan. He will be replacing Hiroaki Ishiura, who retired at the end of last year and partnering Toshiki Oyu in the No.38 KeePer Cerumo.

The GR Supra remains the car to beat, occupying three of the top five positions in pre-season testing. The one who topped the charts was the four-time drivers' champion, Sho Tsuboi, driving the No.36 Team TOM’S car alongside two-time champion Kenta Yamashita. Tsuboi is on the verge of a record-breaking season where he could become the first five-time champion. The team have also won the last two races held at this circuit.

The crew topped three of the four test sessions, with the final one being topped by Nirei Fukuzumi in the No.14 ROOKIE Racing car alongside Kazuya Oshima, who is solely focusing on Super GT this year following his retirement from Super Formula. The No.38 Cerumo crew were not that far back; they were second overall across all the test sessions.

Team and Drivers (GT300)

Credit: GT Association

Things are a lot closer in GT300. The No.65 LEON Racing with Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami behind the wheel won the season opener last year and went on to win the championship. The runners-up in the championship, Kondo Racing, will have Iori Kimura replacing the retired Kohei Hirate, and Joāo Paulo de Oliveira continues with the team.

GoodSmile Racing continue with their proven lineup of Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka. CarGuy MKS, who are heading into their sophomore season after a breakout debut last year, which saw them win a race and finish fourth in the teams’ standings, finishing just 4.5 points shy of the title. 

Last year had eight different winners in the nine races, and racing is going to be just as unpredictable in GT300 this year if pre-season test times are anything to go by. The only team to win multiple races last year was the No.777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin, which will continue with Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg as its drivers.

Tyres

The No.64 Nakajima Racing car is the only car running Dunlop tyres in GT500 | Credit: GT Association

This season will be the last year of competition with different tyre manufacturers in each class. In GT500, only the No.19 WedSport Supra will be running the Yokohama tyres and the No.64 Nakajima Racing Prelude will use Dunlop tyres. The rest of the field will be using Bridgestone tyres.

While the field in GT300 has more variety in terms of tyre manufacturers, six of the eight race winners in 2025 ran the Yokohama tyre. The D’Station Aston was the sole Dunlop race winner, and the LEON Racing Mercedes emerged as the only Bridgestone race winner.

Schedule

Qualifying will take place on Saturday from 1400 JST to 1521 JST, and the race will take place on Sunday at 1320 JST. The race will be 82 laps long.

The race will be the first real test of the new Honda Prelude, as the manufacturer chases their first championship since 2020, which had the No.100 Team Kunimitsu crew pick up their second title. 

This will also be one of the two races without any Balance of Performance (BoP) active, the other being the season finale at Motegi, making it a great benchmark to test the car’s relative performance.

All eyes will be on Tsuboi and Yamashita in the No.36 car, who have made it clear they want to win from pole and be the first to win five drivers’ titles.