Super GT Suzuka

Suzuka SUPER GT round to clash with Le Mans 24 Hours

The postponed Suzuka round of the SUPER GT season has been rescheduled for late August, creating a clash with the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Jamie Klein

Edited: Jun 4, 2021, 8:42 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Grid Action

Last month, it was announced that the third round of the 2021 campaign, originally scheduled for May 29-30, would be pushed back owing to the worsening COVID-19 situation in the Western part of Japan where Suzuka is situated.

Now it has been announced that the race will take place on August 21-22, making it the fourth round of the season following July's Motegi race.

It does however mean the race now falls on the same weekend as the Le Mans 24 Hours, which was also rescheduled from its original June date in a bid to maximise the chances of spectators being able to attend.

While this doesn't directly affect any drivers in SUPER GT's top class, the long gap between the Motegi and Sugo rounds in the original schedule meant that drivers from Japan's top sportscar series could have raced at La Sarthe without being in danger of missing a race. That possibility is now closed off.

One driver in the GT300 ranks, Pacific CarGuy Racing's Takeshi Kimura, is affected by the clash, but he is also set to miss the preceding SUPER GT race at Motegi to compete in the Monza WEC round with the Kessel Racing team and will almost certainly prioritise Le Mans.

The August 21-22 weekend is also when the Suzuka 10 Hours Intercontinental GT Challenge race was planned to take place until it was cancelled for a second year in a row.

A short statement from SUPER GT said that it was not yet clear whether spectators will be able to attend the rescheduled race, with a decision on that front set to come nearer the time depending on the health situation.

Revised 2021 SUPER GT calendar:

Round Date Venue Round 1 April 10-11 Okayama International Circuit Round 2 May 3-4 Fuji Speedway Round 3 July 17-18 Twin Ring Motegi Round 4 August 21-22 Suzuka Circuit Round 5 September 11-12 Sportsland Sugo Round 6 October 23-24 Autopolis Round 7 November 6-7 Twin Ring Motegi Round 8 November 27-28 Fuji Speedway

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

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Long SUPER GT races are great – so let’s have more of them

Next article Yokohama sure "catastrophic" 2020 form now behind it

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Winners and losers from F1's chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

18 min

Winners and losers from F1's chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix

How Lando Norris prevailed in a swift errors tour of Interlagos

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

How Lando Norris prevailed in a swift errors tour of Interlagos

Robert Kubica announces exit from AF Corse’s privateer Hypercar in WEC

WEC

WEC WEC

Monza

58 min

Robert Kubica announces exit from AF Corse’s privateer Hypercar in WEC

Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

1 h

Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP

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