2019-20 Super GT Stove League: Seasons Greetings!

Happy holidays from Super GT World! While you’re enjoying time with family and friends, we’ve put together another Super GT Stove League update, aggregated from the pages of the latest issue of auto sport Magazine, Volume N° 1522, published digitally this week.

Naturally, this is a followup to the previous update – and gives us a clearer picture of what to expect as Toyota, Honda, and Nissan prepare to unveil their roster of GT500 teams and drivers in advance of the 2020 season, the first under the true Class 1 regulations.

As a standard disclaimer, it should be stated up front that all information contained in this post – while compiled from reputable sources that have connections with the manufacturers involved – is not confirmed as of yet until they are announced by the manufacturers, teams, and drivers involved.

Nissan announces 2018 Super GT programmes

On Monday, Nissan and NISMO (Nissan Motorsports) announced their global motorsports plans for 2018, including their team and driver lineups for the 2018 Autobacs Super GT Series.

Nissan enters four Nissan GT-R NISMO GT500s, aiming to recapture the championships it won in 2014 and 2015. Nissan won five out of eight races in 2016 and missed the 2017 title by a mere 2 points. They will also enter GT300 with two newly evolved 2018-spec Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3s and two of the previous 2015-spec GT-R GT3s.

Sasaki & Mardenborough to drive Calsonic GT-R for Team Impul

From its original heyday in the early ’90s in Japanese Touring Car racing, to the success it’s enjoyed as a mainstay of the Autobacs Super GT Series, the #12 Calsonic Nissan GT-R fielded by Kazuyoshi Hoshino’s Team Impul has been the series’ single most-revered and recognized machine on the grid for over a quarter-century.

On Monday, it was announced that 26-year-old Daiki Sasaki, a graduate of the Nissan Driver Development Programme (NDDP), would move from Kondo Racing to partner Welshman Jann Mardenborough in the Calsonic GT-R for 2018.

The two drivers were already hard at work at testing the car at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, and the union of two of Nissan’s best young drivers should have Team Impul and their supporters excited about finally capturing a long-awaited GT500 crown.

Hot Stove League Update: Piecing the 2018 grid together

With the festival season concluded in Japan, the manufacturers in the Autobacs Super GT Series now turns its focus towards the 2018 season – and there will be some significant changes to emerge out of the 2017-18 “Hot Stove League”.

Our latest update comes courtesy of the staff at Motorsport.com, anchored by Tomohiro Yoshita, and after a whirlwind of information in the first reports from auto sport Magazine, the pieces are starting to come together for what the GT500 grid might actually look like in 2018.

DISCLAIMER: While all possible scenarios are gathered from reliable sources, all information in this article is purely speculation, until confirmed by the manufacturers, teams, and drivers mentioned hereafter.