Special Conditions, BoP for GR GT3’s Motegi Debut Revealed

SUPER GT organizers have clarified the special conditions under which the GR GT3 will make its global race debut in next weekend’s Motegi season finale, including the car’s Balance of Performance for its first competitive outing.

Rookie Racing announced on Monday, upon the publication of the entry list for the twin 250km races on Nov. 7-8, that it would be racing Toyota’s hotly-anticipated new challenger, dubbed the ‘GR GT3 concept’, in the GT300 class with special permission from the GTA, replacing its previous Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Hiroaki Ishiura and Tokiya Suzuki will continue as the driver lineup for the car’s debut.

At the time, the car’s BoP was not revealed, but it was finally published on Friday along with the rules governing the car’s participation at Motegi.

The GTA has assigned the GR GT3 concept with a BoP weight of 45 kg, bringing its total weight to 1345 kg, including a base weight of 1300 kg. That makes it the joint heaviest car in the field along with the Mercedes-AMG and the Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

For reference, the lightest car in the class is the Toyota 86 mother chassis at 1150 kg, with all others weighing in at 1305 kg or higher.

The GTA reserves the right to change the car’s BoP values, which also include turbo boost pressures, minimum ride height, rear wing angle and fuel restrictor, at any time.

As previously reported, the GR GT3 will not be eligible to score points based on its finishing position in either Motegi race, but Rookie Racing will still be eligible to score teams’ ranking points for successful completion of the races.

The entry will be considered ‘invisible’ for points-scoring purposes, with all other cars behind it moving up a position: for example, if the car finishes 15th, then the 16th-placed team and drivers will earn a single point for 15th.

However, if Ishiura and Suzuki finish in the top three, they will still be eligible to appear in the podium ceremony.

Because Ishiura and Suzuki are not governed by the usual rules dictating drive time, with one driver only allowed to complete up to two-thirds distance, the car is required to make a pit stop with a tire change in both races.

The usual in-race penalty stop that would apply to a team changing car models in the middle of the season, meanwhile, is waived.

Schedule, Format for Motegi Double-Header Confirmed

Earlier this week, the schedule and rules for the Motegi finale were published by the GTA, with the additional race on Saturday being held as Round 3 — as a replacement for the cancelled Sepang round from earlier in the year.

An unofficial practice session will be held on Friday at 9:30 a.m. local time (Thursday 7:30 p.m. ET), and will last for 90 minutes as per normal, including exclusive running for each class and a full course yellow test.

Qualifying on both days will be held as a single 20-minute session for GT300 and a single 15-minute session for GT500, with no knockout format used. Driver changes and tire changes are not permitted within each session.

Only one driver per car will take part in qualifying, and it is permissible to use the same driver for qualifying on both days. However, both drivers in the pole-winning car for each class will score one bonus point as normal.

Saturday’s qualifying session takes place at 9 a.m. local time (Friday 7 p.m. ET), while Sunday’s qualifying will be held at 9:45 a.m. (Saturday 7:45 p.m. ET). Both races begin at 2 p.m. local time (12 a.m. ET) on each day respectively.

In both races, teams must start on the tires they qualified on, and have three sets of slicks in total at their disposal per day that cannot be carried over. The two sets of tires earmarked for use in practice also cannot be carried over.

As previously revealed by the GTA, half-success ballast applies for Saturday’s race, and no success ballast applies for Sunday.