Fuji has been a Toyota stronghold for the past couple of seasons, with the Shizuoka Prefecture track’s kilometre-long main straight playing to the strengths of the slippery, low-drag GR Supra GT500.
However, that could all change this time round with the introduction of the new Nissan Z and Honda’s updated Type S-based NSX-GT, as well as the changes Toyota has made to the Supra since last year.
Toyota got its campaign off to a winning start last month at Okayama, with the #14 Rookie Racing car of Kenta Yamashita and Kazuya Oshima taking the spoils, but Honda and Nissan each managed to get a car on the podium as well, a clear sign of a the fantastic three-way battle to come in GT500.
Yamashita and Oshima will be hard-pressed to repeat their Okayama win however as they are saddled with the maximum 42kg of success ballast, with each point earned worth 2kg of extra weight.
Among those hoping to capitalise on having low success ballast will be the #36 TOM’S crew (Sho Tsuboi/Giuliano Alesi, 10kg), the Impul Nissan squad (Bertrand Baguette/Kazuki Hiramine, 8kg), and Honda outfits ARTA (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi, 2kg) and Real Racing (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita, 4kg), which won last year’s Fuji Golden Week race.
Strategy will also play an important role, with each car having to make two pitstops instead of the normal single stop.
In the GT300 class, every point so far is worth 3kg of ballast, meaning the Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 that won at Okayama (Joao Paulo de Oliveira/Kiyoto Fujinami) is saddled with 60kg of ballast.
Toyota’s GR Supra GT300 traditionally goes well around Fuji, with the LM Corsa team (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno) keen to add to its pair of victories at the track last year. Another car to keep an eye on is the Team LeMans Audi R8 GT3 LMS Evo II, as ex-Formula 1 racer Roberto Merhi makes his debut.
Max Racing also makes its return after sitting out the Okayama opener, bringing the field up to 28 cars in GT300 and 43 in total.
SUPER GT time schedule for Fuji, Round 2
Times are Local/UK time (GMT+1)/EDT/PDT
Tuesday May 3
Free practice (1h45 minutes) – 9.00am/1.00am/8.00pm (Monday)/5.00pm (Monday)
Qualifying – 3pm/7am/2am/11pm (Monday)
Wednesday May 4
Warm-up – 1.10pm/5.10am/12.10am/9.10pm (Tuesday)
Race (100 laps) – 2.30pm/6.30am/1.30am/10.30pm (Tuesday)
How can I watch SUPER GT at Fuji?
Motorsport.tv will once again be offering full coverage of both qualifying and the race for every round of the 2022 SUPER GT season (subscription required and some geo-restrictions apply).
Commentary will be provided by Jake Sanson and Motorsport.com’s own expert Japanese racing analyst Jamie Klein.
Click here for further information, and to get your subscription now
SUPER GT entry list for Fuji, Round 2
GT500 class:
Manufacturer |
Team |
Tyre |
No. |
Drivers |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nissan Z GT500
|
NDDP Racing |
Michelin |
3 |
Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi |
Team Impul |
Bridgestone |
12 |
Bertrand Baguette Kazuki Hiramine |
|
NISMO |
Michelin |
23 |
Ronnie Quintarelli Tsugio Matsuda |
|
Kondo Racing |
Yokohama |
24 |
Kohei Hirate Daiki Sasaki |
|
Toyota GR Supra
|
Rookie Racing |
Bridgestone |
14 |
Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita |
Racing Project Bandoh |
Yokohama |
19 |
Yuji Kunimoto Sena Sakaguchi |
|
TOM’S
|
Bridgestone
|
36
|
Giuliano Alesi Sho Tsuboi |
|
37 |
Ritomo Miyata Sacha Fenestraz |
|||
Cerumo |
Bridgestone |
38 |
Hiroaki Ishiura Yuji Tachikawa |
|
SARD |
Bridgestone |
39 |
Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuichi Nakayama |
|
Honda NSX-GT (Type S)
|
ARTA |
Bridgestone |
8 |
Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi |
Team Mugen |
Dunlop |
16 |
Toshiki Oyu Ukyo Sasahara |
|
Real Racing |
Bridgestone |
17 |
Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita |
|
Nakajima Racing |
Dunlop |
64 |
Takuya Izawa Hiroki Otsu |
|
Team Kunimitsu |
Bridgestone |
100 |
Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke… |
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