Provisional Suzuka 1000km Entry List Features 28 Cars

A provisional entry list for the Suzuka 1000km round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge has been revealed featuring a total of 28 cars.

Published on Thursday, exactly a month before the fourth and penultimate race of the IGTC season on Sept. 13, the entry is down five cars on the 33-car grid that the race attracted on its return to the calendar last year.

However, it features one extra manufacturer compared to 2025, with both Lexus and Ford joining to bring the total up to eight, with only Audi not returning of last year’s marques, and of those seven have at least one entry in the nine-strong Pro class.

The Bronze class is the best supported with 12 entries, while the Pro-Am division has six cars and the Am class just one car. There are no Silver entries this time.

Similarly to last year, Porsche remains the most prolific manufacturer with 10 examples of its 911 GT3 R Evo on the grid — double the number of the next-best represented brand, Ferrari, which has five of its 296 GT3 Evos in action.

BMW has four cars, Mercedes-AMG has three, Corvette and Nissan have two apiece and Lexus and Ford are represented by solo entries.

All nine Pro class efforts were previously announced by their respective teams, with the most recent announcement coming from K-tunes Racing with its Lexus RC F GT3.

Defending winner WRT will not be entering the Pro class this time around, but it does have a single M4 GT3 EVO in the Bronze class for FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 regulars Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Dan Harper.

Elsewhere in the BMW stable, GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS squad Team KRC has two cars, one of which is in the Bronze division for ‘Tony’ Ruan Cunfan, Maxime Oosten and Max Hesse, who drove for the team in the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

Harper and Hesse are BMW’s two highest-placed drivers in the IGTC standings.

Augusto Farfus, who was part of the two-car Pro WRT effort last year, joins KRC’s Pro-Am car alongside another Brazilian, Marcelo Tomasoni, and Brian Lee.

Ferrari is entirely represented by Japanese teams this time, with the Pro PONOS Racing car supplemented by two cars from LM Corsa, plus single cars each from SRO Japan Cup regular squads Maezawa Racing and Norik Racing (run by Team LeMans).

Ex-Formula 1 star Giancarlo Fisichella returns to LM Corsa with the same co-drivers he raced with last year, Kei Nakanishi and Shigekazu Wakisaka, in Pro-Am.

The sister car will contest the Bronze class with ex-SUPER GT and Formula Nippon top-liner Naoki Hattori alongside Ryo Ogawa and Hiroki Yoshimoto.

Ferrary factory driver Thomas Neubauer is back with Maezawa Racing with usual co-drivers Yusaku Maezawa and Naoki Yokomizo.

Another big name on the entry list not previously announced is Genesis WEC star Mathieu Jaminet, who makes a second outing in a 911 GT3 R Evo since he left the marque’s factory roster, joining EBM alongside Adrian D’Silva and Leo Ye Hongli.

That car is one of no fewer than seven Bronze class Porsche entries, with the others coming from Bingo Racing, Porsche Center Okazaki (which has two cars), High Class Racing, Herberth Motorsport and Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing.

Completing the Porsche stable is a Pro-Am car for Tsunami RT.

Toyota GT300 regular Hibiki Taira will notably make his debut at the wheel of a 911 GT3 R sharing one of the two Porsche Center Okazaki cars with current apr SUPER GT co-driver Hiroaki Nagai and his former Super Formula teammate Kazuto Kotaka.

Joel Sturm meanwhile reinforces the lineup at High Class Racing alongside the full-time IGTC entrant’s regular pair Li Kerong and Anders Fjordbach.

Neither of Porsche’s two-best placed drivers in the IGTC standings, Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller, feature on the entry list, with Dorian Boccolacci, part of the No. 8 Absolute Racing lineup, instead its best-placed representative.

Li is one of seven IGTC Independent Cup entrants along with D’Silva, Kenny Habul (75 Express Mercedes-AMG), Johannes Zelger (Tsunami RT Porsche), Ralf Bohn (Herberth Motorsport Porsche), Jonathan Hui (Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche) and Prince Jefri Ibrahim (Johor Motorsports JMR Corvette).

The solo Am class entry comes from Tomei Sports and its Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, which features sometime GT500 racer Tetsuya Tanaka in its lineup.

In total, 12 of the 28 cars entered for the Suzuka 1000km are fielded by Japanese teams, a higher proportion compared to the 2025 race.