Watarai Clinches Title With Race to Spare at Fuji

Seven x Seven Racing’s Taichi Watarai clinched the Porsche Carrera Cup Japan title with a race to spare in the first race of Saturday’s season finale at Fuji Speedway.

Watarai went into the final two 30-minute races of the season, held on the support bill of this weekend’s 6 Hours of Fuji FIA World Endurance Championship round, as the heavy favorite for the title with Robert de Haan sitting out the finale.

De Haan, who has a 100 percent win record in the series this year, led Watarai by 4.5 points after the conclusion of the penultimate round at Suzuka earlier this month.

But that advantage was overturned in a wet opening race on Saturday morning as Watarai finished the race in third place behind polesitter Reimei Ito (Bingo Racing), who scored his first win of 2026, and outgoing champion Iori Kimura (Sky Racing).

It gave Watarai an unassailable 30-point lead over Ito with 25 points on offer left up for grabs in the final race, in which the newly-crowned champion finished fourth after a spin while battling Kimura for the lead.

Kimura ended a tough season with his first win of the year, jumping to second in the final standings, with second-placed Ito securing third ahead of the absent de Haan.

Championship glory for Watarai adds to his success last winter in Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East, and comes not long after he made his SUPER GT debut for Seven x Seven.

After taking over Kiyoto Fujinami’s seat alongside Sven Mueller in the No. 666 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo for the fourth round of the season at Suzuka, Watarai helped the team match its best finish of the year so far in the most recent race at Sugo in fourth place.

With de Haan sidelined for Fuji, his No. 66 entry was taken over for this weekend by Australian driver Lachlan Bloxsom, who made a guest outing earlier in the year at Sugo.

Bloxsom beat the returning Itsuki Sato, who contested a full season of PCCJ last season, to fourth place in the first race, before finishing third in the finale.

The battle for the Pro-Am title went down to the final race, with ‘Hiro’ beating Tiger Wu with a double class win, while ‘Ikeda’ arrived at Fuji already assured of the Am class crown with an unassailable points advantage.