One-Make Tire Switch for 2027 Confirmed

SUPER GT organizer GTA has confirmed plans to abandon its long-running tire war and adopt one-make tires for the 2027 season.

GTA chairman Masaaki Bandoh officially revealed the move speaking on Sunday morning at Autopolis in his regular pre-event press conference, citing rising costs as the major factor behind the decision.

It brings to an end a long unbroken period of tire competition in the Japanese series, which had been one of the last major competitions in worldwide sportscar racing to resist going down the route of introducing spec tires.

Bandoh said: “We will switch to one-make tires in 2027.

“For me personally, this is an extremely bitter announcement, as we have always sought the purest possible competition.

“It was a difficult, even heart-breaking decision, but after much consideration, we decided to go down the route of introducing one-make tires.”

As reported by Sportscar365 earlier this month, the GTA is already in the process of determining the manufacturers that will supply tires for the GT500 and GT300 classes.

All four current tire suppliers, Bridgestone, Yokohama, Dunlop and Michelin, are believed to have applied for the GT300 tender, while only two are believed to have put themselves forward to supply the Bridgestone-dominated GT500 class.

A final decision on the suppliers is expected to be made in the next week.

With the end of SUPER GT’s tire war looming on the horizon, question marks will inevitably surround the financial status of the three GT500 teams that are not using Bridgestone tires: Nakajima Racing, Racing Project Bandoh and Kondo Racing.

All three teams are understood to receive significant financial contributions from their respective current tire suppliers, Dunlop in the case of Honda squad Nakajima and Yokohama in the case of the Bandoh Toyota and Kondo Nissan outfits.

It comes at a time of increasing speculation that Nissan is preparing to scale down from four cars to three at the end of the current season.

Paddock sources earlier in the year suggested that Yokohama was poised to pull the plug on its GT500 effort at the end of 2025, but agreed to extend its participation through next season when the GTA elected to pursue the one-make tire route.