The 46th running of the ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24 Hours is the greatest challenge for endurance racers of all skill levels and production based cars of all kinds.
This year, a contingent of 10 current and 13 former drivers from the Autobacs Super GT Series will take part in this year’s running of the great race around the fabled “Green Hell”, including four former champions of the series and several other former race winners from both the GT500 and GT300 class past and present.
Toyota Gazoo Racing announced their global motorsports activities for the 2018 season in a press release on Thursday, and with it, outlined their participation for the Autobacs Super GT Series.
Super GT series is the top category of Japanese car racing, and in 2018, Lexus Gazoo Racing will continue to enter the Lexus LC 500. Lexus Gazoo Racing will support 6 teams and 6 vehicles through TRD. In the GT300 class, Toyota Gazoo Racing will enter 2 Toyota Prius and 3 Lexus RC F GT3 models.
2013 and 2016 GT500 Drivers’ Champion, Kohei Hirate, will drive the #31 Toyota Prius apr GT for apr Racing in the 2018 Autobacs Super GT Series.
Hirate joins longtime apr Prius project stalwart Koki Saga in their flagship number 31 entry, while the pro-am driver combination of Hiroaki Nagai and Kota Sasaki will return to pilot the number 30 car.
The 31-year-old Toyota factory racer from Aichi reunites for the very team he made his debut with in 2008, for his first tour of duty in the GT300 category in a decade – as the four-time GT300 champion team looks to rebound from a disappointing 2017 season.
ARN Racing, the reigning champions of the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series’ ST-X Class, announced on Saturday that they will switch to the Blancpain GT Series Asia full-time for 2018, with the same Ferrari 488 GT3 that won Super Taikyu’s premier-class title in 2017.
This is the second notable Japanese team to announce a switch to the second-year championship run by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO), following BMW Team Studie’s announcement that they would switch over from Super GT this season with two new BMW M4 GT4s.
Team director Hiroaki Nagai will be one of the team’s two drivers for the 2018 season, and the reigning champions from Super Taikyu’s top category are also expected to take part in the Suzuka 10 Hours this August.
Super GT World