LEON Racing Firms Up GT300 Title Defense Plans

LEON Racing has announced it will defend its GT300 class title in SUPER GT this season with an unchanged driver lineup of Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami.

The K2 R&D-run team scored its second title last year with the No. 65 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo shared by Gamou and Suganami, its first since 2018, the pair beating Kondo Racing Nissan driver Kohei Hirate by just two points.

It followed the team’s decision to bring back Suganami to the lineup alongside team mainstay Gamou after a three-year absence.

Now LEON has confirmed it will head into the 2026 campaign with an unchanged lineup aboard its Bridgestone-shod Mercedes-AMG, which will carry a special livery to mark the 25th anniversary of the men’s fashion magazine that gives the team its name.

“Last year, thanks to all those who support us, our owners, staff and drivers, were were able to score our second championship and our first for seven years,” said team director Haruki Kurosawa. “I want to express my gratitude once again.

“We can’t say ‘our target is back-to-back-titles!’ without first winning it once, so our target is to defend the championship, and we want to come together as a team in true LEON Racing style in order to move towards this goal.”

LEON has opted against using the No. 0, which is optional for the reigning GT300 champion team, in favor of keeping its regular No. 65 for its title defense.

Last year, 2024 title-winning team JLOC made a last-minute decision to adopt the No. 0 having originally planned to retain its usual No. 88 until the start of official testing.