Fuji Thursday Notebook

***Similarly to the Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of The Americas, this weekend’s 6 Hours of Fuji, the penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, will be contested by a field of 36 cars, split evenly between Hypercar and LMGT3.

***The two changes to the entry list since COTA concern Alpine’s No. 35 car, as reserve driver Jules Gounon temporarily replaces Paul-Loup Chatin, and Proton Competition’s No. 88 Ford Mustang GT3, in which Christian Ried makes a second outing of the season as the designated Bronze driver following his appearance in Sao Paulo.

***Ried is set for a record-extending 87th WEC start at Fuji, which would keep him two clear of Sebastien Buemi at the head of the all-time list. Next up in the ranking are Richard Lietz, another two starts behind on 83 as of Fuji, and Mike Conway on 78.

***Hertz Team JOTA’s No. 12 Porsche 963 conducted a shakedown at Fuji’s Short Circuit, located just outside Turn 1 of the main course near the disused banking, on Wednesday with Will Stevens driving. Team principal Dieter Gass explained this was to check that the electrical issues that plagued the No. 12 car at COTA.

***Gass told Sportscar365: “We didn’t manage to get to the bottom of the problems we had at Austin during the race, so we were looking for a possibility to shake down the car, and we managed to do it outside of the track here. We were confident we had found the problem after the race, but we still wanted to make sure.”

***Five Japanese drivers will be racing on home turf at Fuji: Toyota pair Kamui Kobayashi and Ryo Hirakawa and LMGT3 regulars Marino Sato (United Autosports McLaren), Hiroshi Koizumi (TF Sport Corvette) and Takeshi Kimura (Akkodis ASP Lexus).

***Bizarrely, Sato had never raced a car professionally on Japanese soil until he took part in a Porsche Carrera Cup Japan event at Fuji in August, in support of the SUPER GT race that month. He finished fifth and third across the two races on that occasion.

***Toyota is aiming for its tenth outright victory in its home event, having only ever been defeated once on home turf since the WEC’s 2012 rebirth. That came in 2015 at the hands of Porsche, when current Toyota driver Brendon Hartley was part of the winning crew along with Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard.

***Should Toyota win this weekend, it would become the first manufacturer to score ten race wins at any track on the WEC calendar outside of Le Mans.

***Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury revealed that Hirakawa had been feeling unwell on race day at COTA and has continued to struggle with an illness in recent days, although he predicts the Japanese driver will be ok to race at Fuji.

***Floury said of Hirakawa: “We hesitated to have him back in the car [at COTA] after his first stint. Since then he has not been very well, but I think he is getting better now.”

***For the third race in succession, the Medium and Hard tire Michelin tire compounds will be available to Hypercar teams. The French marque says the choice was made “to cover the anticipated spectrum of ground temperatures” at the Japanese track, with temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) expected throughout the weekend.

***With only the 8 Hours of Bahrain left on the schedule after this weekend, three championships could be wrapped up with a race to spare at Fuji.

***Hertz Team JOTA’s No. 12 crew has the chance to clinch the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams, having lost a chance to do so at COTA with its failure to be classified. If the car shared by Callum Ilott, Will Stevens and Norman Nato wins and the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P isn’t second, JOTA will be crowned the champion.

***The LMGT3 drivers’ and teams’ titles could also be locked up at Fuji. If No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing trio Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler win their class, the No. 91 Manthey EMA car of Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Richard Lietz would need to finish at least third to keep the title race open.

***However, if Malykhin takes the bonus point for pole, the No. 91 car would have to finish second to prevent the PureRxcing trio being crowned in Fuji.

***By contrast, neither the Hypercar drivers’ or manufacturers’ championships can be won this weekend. Even if the points-leading No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 won from pole at Fuji with the No. 7 Toyota and No. 50 Ferrari not scoring, the extra points on offer at Bahrain would leave the No. 6 Porsche crew one point shy of an unassailable margin.

***Dane Cameron is Porsche Penske’s designated reserve driver this weekend.

***Proton Competition’s Ryan Hardwick was delayed in arriving in Japan after his originally scheduled flight on Tuesday afternoon from Atlanta was called off after becoming involved in a taxiway collision with another aircraft. No injuries were reported.

***Further details have emerged on Hyundai’s entry into the WEC, likely for 2026, following the Korean automaker’s announcement on Thursday confirming the Genesis brand to the LMDh formula. Sportscar365 believes that Genesis is likely to have a role in two LMP2 programs (European Le Mans Series and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship) next year.

***While Chip Ganassi Racing has been rumored to run the LMP2 effort in the WeatherTech Championship ahead of its possible factory Genesis operation in the States in 2026, both IDEC Sport and TDS Racing are understood to have held discussions of a possible link-up with Genesis for an ELMS program next year that would be used to help develop prospective drivers and crew.

***ORECA, meanwhile, is understood to have partnered with Hyundai for the Genesis LMDh chassis.

***The ever-popular Circuit Safari, which provides spectators the chance to see WEC machinery running on-track up close while riding buses, returns this weekend, with a 12-minute session pencilled in on Saturday morning just before Free Practice 3. Each team is required to field one car.

***Support action this weekend at Fuji is provided by the Formula Regional Japanese Championship, with two races slated to be held on Saturday.

***Track action begins on Friday with Free Practice 1 at 11am local time (Thursday 10pm EDT), with Free Practice 2 set to follow at 3:30 p.m. (2:30 a.m. EDT).

John Dagys contributed to this report