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The Super Taikyu Organisation (STO) has released the provisional entry list for the 2024 Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours. 59 cars are set to take part in the crown jewel event of the Eneos Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone, across eight classes.
This year’s race, to be held on 25/26 May, will be the seventh consecutive annual running of the Fuji 24-Hour race and the ninth in total, dating back to 1967.
PROVISIONAL ENTRY LIST (English version) >>
Headlining the event will be five cars in the ST-X (GT3) class which will be vying for the overall victory, including the Super Taikyu debut of the world-renowned Craft-Bamboo Racing team.
The 2023 GT World Challenge Asia champions will enter the #33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 with an international line-up of drivers. GTWC Asia driver Jeffrey Lee anchors the team as its ‘A’ driver, sharing the cockpit with Honda works driver Kakunoshin Ohta, as well as GT3 newcomer Dean Chen, Liang Jiatong – another full-time GTWC Asia driver – and Jayden Ojeda, who drove for Craft-Bamboo Racing in the Asian Le Mans Series this winter.
Theirs is one of three Mercedes-AMG GT3s in the field, joined by defending overall race winners Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing, who return with the #1 Mercedes-AMG and three-fourths of last year’s winning line-up – Ryuta Ukai, Naoya Gamou, Tatsuya Kataoka, joined by newcomer Giuliano Alesi who helped drive the team to victory in the opening round at Sportsland Sugo.
TKRI (TK Racing Invitation) has also entered the race for the first time, adding Kosuke Matsuura to the regular trio of Daisuke Matsunaga, Yuya Motojima, and Yuhki Nakayama in the #23 Mercedes. TKRI will have the full backing of the RS Fine racing garage, which also prepares the cars for multi-time SUPER GT GT300 champions Goodsmile Racing & TeamUKYO.
GTNET MotorSports will go for its fourth win in the Fuji 24 Hours as the sole team representing Nissan. The orange #81 Daishin GTNET GT-R NISMO GT3 features a six-driver line-up with three-time race winner Kiyoto Fujinami, Takayuki Aoki, Natsu Sakaguchi, Nobuhiro Imada – and the father/son duo of Noboyuki and Ryuichiro Oyagi.
The #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 will also have six drivers – with Miki Koyama vying to become the first woman to win the race overall, joined by Hiroaki and Hideki Nagai, Koki Saga, and Toyota works drivers Kazuto Kotaka and Yuichi Nakayama.
ST-Z (GT4) has 12 cars from five manufacturers, two of which are making their 2024 debuts this weekend with Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evos.
Team Noah, a mainstay of the series, is back with the new-look #5 Toyota (Toshiro Tsukada/Yu Kanamaru/Kokoro Morita/Aruga Tomita/Riki Tanioka/Yuji Kiyotaki) carrying the famous Mach 5 livery.
There is also the #59 Toyota of 2W Zoomies x GR Garage Yamaguchi-Shunan, a Thai-Japanese collaborative effort headlined by Toyota legend Yuji Tachikawa and TGR-DC young driver Kazuhisa Urabe, sharing the car with Kachorn Chiaravanont, and brothers Andrew and Warren Adulayavichitr.
Saitama Green Brave is the defending ST-Z class-winning team, returning with the #52 Toyota and adding former TGR-DC trainee Rin Arakawa to the quartet of Manabu Yamazaki, Hiroki Yoshida, Naoki Hattori, and Seita Nonaka that won the race last year.
SHADE Racing’s #885 Toyota also features an expanded line-up, with three-time GT300 Champion Morio Nitta in the fold alongside Hiro Hayashi, Katsuyuki Hiranaka, and Eijiro Shimizu.
Three Nissan Z NISMO GT4s are entered, one from Naniwa Denso Team Impul, and two from Team ZeroOne. Team Impul will feature 2022 GT500 Champion Bertrand Baguette and Keishi Ishikawa as its guest drivers in the blue #20, and ZeroOne manager Masataka Yanagida – a two-time GT500 and GT300 Champion – will join the #26 crew.
Hitotsuyama Racing’s #21 Mercedes-AMG GT4 has six drivers now, with the addition of KYOJO Cup driver Mako Hirakawa – the younger sister of 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Ryo Hirakawa – and reigning Formula Regional Japanese Champion Sota Ogawa to the team. AutoFactory may add up to two more drivers to the #555 Mercedes-AMG before Qualifying on Friday.
Porsche Team EBI adds Tsubasa Kondo, a past ST-X Champion now racing full-time in GTWC Asia, to the #22 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4. Birth Racing Project owner Koichi Okumura and fellow am driver Kenji Suzuki are also making their first starts of the season in the #19 Porsche.
This race was meant to feature the debut of Audi Team Show Apex, running the RS 3 LMS TCR with sponsorship from EVA Racing (Run’A Entertainment) – but with no other ST-TCR cars to compete against, the #430 Audi will make its debut at the next race at Autopolis.
ST-Q, the only class with direct manufacturer involvement, will feature five makes and eight cars all showcasing new technologies and developments.
GR Team Spirit enters the GT4-based #92 Toyota GR Supra Racing Concept, and joining the team for Fuji is three-time Le Mans winner Kazuki Nakajima. The Vice Chairman of Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe – and this year’s grand marshal for the 24 Hours of Le Mans – will be back behind the cockpit for one weekend only, sharing the GR Supra with Keizo Kato, Takamitsu Matsui, Shunsuke Kohno, and Kenta Yamashita.
The liquid-hydrogen-fueled, #32 Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept from ORC ROOKIE Racing will make its first appearance of the season as it seeks to finish the full 24 hours and set new distance records for a hydrogen race car. Toyota Chairman Akio “Morizo” Toyoda – soon to become the new chairman of Super Taikyu – will share the hydrogen Corolla with his regular supporting cast of Masahiro Sasaki, Hiroaki Ishiura, and Yasuhiro Ogura. TGR WRC Team Principal, Jari-Matti Latvala, is back in the race for the third time, and Masahiko “Matchy” Kondo will come out of racing retirement for the first time in 21 years to fill out the line-up.
ROOKIE Racing’s #28 Toyota GR86 CNF (carbon-neutral fuel) Concept, now sporting a new Lexus-sourced gearbox and a 1.6L inline-3 engine, is also back in the field. Joining its regular cast of drivers (Eisuke Sasaki, Sho Tsuboi, Kazuya Oshima, Daisuke Toyoda) are Nirei Fukuzumi – yet another Toyota works driver – and Kazuhiko Omasa, a newcomer who has been Keizo Kato’s co-driver in domestic rally competition.
The other big story out of the #28 team is the confirmation that two-time World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanperä will not race in the Fuji 24 Hours after all. Akio Toyoda had previously announced Rovanperä’s participation at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, where he would have driven the #28 GR86.
Mazda Spirit Racing is back with its two cars, the #12 Mazda Roadster CNF Concept and the #55 Mazda3 Bio Concept which uses renewable biodiesel fuel. For this race, promising youngster Tatsuya Minowa has been called up to drive the two-litre #12 Roadster as a guest with Hiroshi Kawata, Ryohei Sakaguchi, and Yuui Tsutsumi. Mazda Executive Fellow Ikuo Maeda will drive the #55 Mazda3 for the first time this year, joined by Kazuhiro Terakawa, Yutaka Seki, Kaoru Ijiri, and automotive critic Takahiro Sato, the Editor in Chief of Tipo magazine.
Team SDA Engineering makes its season debut with the #61 Subaru BRZ CNF Concept, driven by Subaru engineers Kazuhiro Ito, Masafumi Hanazawa, and Koichi Hirota – with Subaru factory drivers Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi.
Team HRC will have a mostly new line-up in the #271 Honda Civic Type R CNF-R – Hideki Mutoh and Hiroki Otsu stay from the previous round, now joined by 2021 KYOJO Cup Champion Shion Tsujimoto, Super Taikyu veteran Shinichi Katsura, and automotive writers Yohei Hashimoto and Masamichi Ishii. Tomoki Nojiri, who drove the car in the opening round at Sportsland Sugo, will instead drive for Honda R&D Challenge in the ST-2 class, honouring a commitment to the team he could not fulfil last year due to a pneumothorax.
And NISMO will enter six of its best factory drivers of present and past in the GT4-based #230 Nissan Z Racing Concept: Kohei Hirate, Daiki Sasaki, Katsumasa Chiyo, Mitsunori Takaboshi, Ronnie Quintarelli and Satoshi Motoyama – who’ve combined for nine GT500 Championships and dozens of victories in the top levels of Japanese motorsport!
The sole ST-1 entry, the #2 K’s Frontier KTM Cars X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Hiroki Katoh/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Yoshimoto/Takashi Kobayashi), could be a factor for an overall podium finish.
Rounding out the field is a great collection of production vehicles: Eight in ST-2 – including the debut of HCM Uchino Racing’s new #36 Honda Civic Type R, four in ST-3, seven in ST-4 and 14 in ST-5.
The field features drivers from ten different countries, and ten women are in the field across six classes.
Feature image © STO
Author: RJ O’Connell
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59 Cars, Notable Names On Fuji 24H Provisional Entry List – dailysportscar.com
