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.

2019-20 Super GT Stove League: First Strike

It’s that time of year again in the Japanese auto racing season. The cars themselves are silent, but the discussion of the 2020 Autobacs Super GT Series to come is anything but. Welcome to another round of the domestic racing Stove League, the “Silly Season” by another name, the winter period where the pieces of the puzzle that is the 2020 Super GT field start to take shape.

Baseball’s own Stove League is already at full burn, where teams negotiate trades and attempt to sign high-dollar free agents. After battling for Major League Baseball’s World Series, ace pitcher Stephen Strasburg just signed a record-breaking deal to remain with the championship-winning Washington Nationals. Days later, his rival from the Houston Astros, Gerrit Cole, eclipsed Strasbourg’s deal with his own record-setting contract upon joining the New York Yankees.

In Super GT, the money is never a talking point, rather the arrangement of the teams and drivers representing the big three manufacturers in GT500: Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Drivers changing teams, young drivers stepping up from GT300 or stepping in from elsewhere, and old veterans fighting to keep their places in the most competitive class in sports car racing.

Using the information from the latest issue of auto sport Magazine (Volume 1521: “Solving the Mystery of 51 Seats”), as well as the reporting from Motorsport.com contributors such as Jamie Klein, here is Super GT World’s guide to how the GT500 field might look in 2020 – and it starts with the biggest story of the off-season to date.

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.

2017 Super GT World Awards: GT500 Driver of the Year

Every year, Super GT World honours the most outstanding performers in the Autobacs Super GT Series with the Super GT World Awards.

The GT500 class is the pinnacle of GT racing in terms of speed and spectacle. Over thirty drivers took part this year, but only one will be recognized as the Driver of the Year, honouring the most outstanding individual driver in the GT500 category.

It is an ultra competitive field in which there are no weak links, in which every driver has earned their place on the grid by their merit. Before announcing the seven finalists including the one winner, some honourable mentions…