Breaking news
Super GT
Super GT issues 44-car entry list for 2019 season
Super GT has officially unveiled the entry list for the 2019 season, featuring 15 cars in the flagship GT500 category and a further 29 in GT300.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Feb 25, 2019, 4:31 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Lexus will once again have the highest representation on the grid with six cars in the manufacturer-exclusive GT500 division, followed by Honda (five) and Nissan (four).
Reigning champions Jenson Button and Naoki Yamamoto will carry #1 on their Team Kunimitsu NSX-GT, with the Honda-affiliated squad ditching its long-standing #100 to celebrate its first-ever GT500 title.
Button and Yamamoto take the honour from TOM’S Lexus pair Nick Cassidy and Ryo Hirakawa, who revert to #37 after being unable to replicate their 2017 success.
The entry list rubber stamped major changes at all three camps, which collectively bring seven new or returning drivers to the series’ top class.
Among new or returning additions are two-time GT500 champion Kohei Hirate, Porsche GT ace Frederic Makowiecki (both B-Max Nissan), rising Japanese star Sho Tsuboi (Bandoh Lexus), Lexus convert James Rossiter (Impul Nissan), Yuichi Nakayama (Sard Lexus), ex-Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan and Formula 2 race winner Tadasuke Makino (both Nakajima Honda).
The entry list also confirmed the departure of several high profile racers.
Kamui Kobayashi and Felix Rosenqvist have left the series to prioritise their campaigns in WEC and IndyCar respectively, while Nissan has dropped Joao Paulo de Oliveira, who has since joined the Aston Martin-supported D’Station team in the GT300 category, and triple champion Satoshi Motoyama.
Four tyre manufacturers will be represented in GT500, with Bridgestone once again supplying nine of the 15 cars in class. Yokohama has three cars, Michelin two and Dunlop just one.
The GT300 grid will remain at 29 cars despite three new teams joining the class - Kondo Racing's Nissan GT-R, Team Goh’s new McLaren 720S entry and X Works, which tested a GT-R recently but is yet to confirm which car it will use during the season.
They replace Team Taisan, CarGuy Racing - which has quit the series to focus on a Le Mans 24 Hours entry after winning the GTE class in the Asian Le Mans Series - and Elcars.
At least 10 manufacturers will be represented in GT300, with majority of teams running SRO-spec GT3 cars. In addition, there will be a minimum of three mother chassis-spec cars on the grid and two Toyota Prius cars built to JAF's GT300 specification.
Testing for the new Super GT season will begin at the Okayama Circuit on March 16-17, before the same circuit hosts the season opener on April 13-14.
GT500 entry list:
No. Driver Entrant Car Tyre 1 Naoki Yamamoto
Jenson Button TEAM KUNIMITSU Honda Bridgestone 3 Kohei Hirate
Frederic Makowiecki NDDP RACING with B-MAX Nissan Michelin 6 Kazuya Oshima
Kenta Yamashita LEXUS TEAM LEMANS Lexus Bridgestone 8 Tomoki Nojiri
Takuya Izawa ARTA Honda Bridgestone 12 Daiki Sasaki
James Rossiter TEAM IMPUL Nissan Bridgestone 16 Hideki Mutoh
Daisuke Nakajima TEAM MUGEN Honda Yokohama 17 Koudai Tsukakoshi
Bertrand Baguette REAL RACING Honda Bridgestone 19 Yuji Kunimoto
Sho Tsuboi LEXUS TEAM BANDOH Lexus Yokohama 23 Tsugio Matsuda
Ronnie Quintarelli NISMO Nissan Michelin 24 Mitsunori Takaboshi
Jann Mardenborough KONDO RACING Nissan Yokohama 36 Kazuki Nakajima
Yuhi Sekiguchi LEXUS TEAM TOM'S Lexus Bridgestone 37 Ryo Hirakawa
Nick Cassidy LEXUS TEAM TOM'S Lexus Bridgestone 38 Yuji Tachikawa
Hiroaki Ishiura LEXUS TEAM ZENT CERUMO Lexus Bridgestone 39 Heikki Kovalainen
Yuichi Nakayama LEXUS TEAM SARD Lexus Bridgestone 64 Narain Karthikeyan
Tadasuke Makino Nakajima Racing Honda Dunlop
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Honda wants to keep midship NSX "for a reason" - Cassidy
Next article Palou warns Japan no easy option for European racers
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Rachit Thukral
Toyota: BMW has advantage in Barcelona WEC after private test
WEC
WEC
Barcelona
5 h
Toyota: BMW has advantage in Barcelona WEC after private test
Aprilia considering manufacturer orders as MotoGP title fight intensifies
MotoGP
MotoGP
Indonesian GP
Aprilia considering manufacturer orders as MotoGP title fight intensifies
Latest news
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 14 min
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
13 Autosport retains unchanged lineup for 2027 IMSA campaign, eyes global expansion
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 31 min
13 Autosport retains unchanged lineup for 2027 IMSA campaign, eyes global expansion
Bourdais, Moss headline second batch of Sebring's 75 all-time greatest drivers
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 49 min
Bourdais, Moss headline second batch of Sebring's 75 all-time greatest drivers
IndyCar driver and Fox Sports reporter Jack Harvey announces cancer diagnosis
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 58 min
IndyCar driver and Fox Sports reporter Jack Harvey announces cancer diagnosis
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe