Sasaki Replaces Injured Chiyo in No. 23 Nissan for Sugo

Katsumasa Chiyo has been forced out of this weekend’s Sugo SUPER GT round after suffering a broken toe, and has been replaced aboard the works NISMO Nissan entry by the marque’s reserve driver Daiki Sasaki.

NISMO announced ahead of free practice on Saturday morning that Chiyo had suffered a fractured toe on his right foot on Friday evening and therefore will not be able to take up his usual place alongside Mitsunori Takaboshi in the No. 23 NISMO.

“Last night, I injured my right foot at the circuit, and after having it examined it turned out I had fractured a metatarsal bone,” said Chiyo in a statement.

“I did consider trying to drive anyway, but trying to force things could have an impact on subsequent races, so after receiving the medical examination results and discussing the situation with the team, it was decided that I would withdraw.

“It’s very frustrating, but I will do my best to recover as quickly as possible.”

Sasaki will replace Chiyo alongside Takaboshi in the No. 23 Nissan in what will mark his first SUPER GT appearance since last year’s season finale at Motegi.

The 34-year-old lost his seat when Nissan scaled back its four-car GT500 operation to three cars for 2026, axing the second-string No. 3 NISMO car that Sasaki drove alongside Atsushi Miyake last year, but was retained as a reserve driver.

Sasaki has experience of winning at Sugo, having taken victory at the circuit alongside Masataka Yanagida in 2016 driving a Yokohama-shod Kondo Racing GT-R.

Chiyo and Takaboshi sit eighth in the drivers’ standings ahead of the Sugo round with a best finish of third place in the second round of the season at Fuji.

Another last-minute driver change for Sugo concerns the Team Mach Toyota 86 Mother Chassis in the GT300 class, where Souta Arao is replaced by Kimiya Sato.

Ex-Honda junior Arao has instead travelled to the United States to take part in an Indy NXT test with Chip Ganassi Racing on Monday.

Sato, who makes his first start since departing the Tsuchiya Engineering Toyota team at the end of last season, shares the No. 5 Team Mach car with Yusuke Shiotsu.