Goodsmile Racing Switches Service Provider

Goodsmile Racing has become the first SUPER GT team to officially firm up its plans for the 2026 season, revealing a change of service provider.

The long-time Mercedes-AMG squad revealed during its season presentation event on Saturday that it has parted ways with RS Fine, which has run the effort since 2015, forging a new tie-up with Gotemba-based firm Kim International.

Driving pair Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka will continue together for a 15th consecutive season driving the Yokohama-shod No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

With RS Fine departing, the team has welcomed a new chief engineer in the form of Viktor Ferder, who has a wealth of experience running Mercedes-AMG machinery in events such as the Nürburgring 24 and the FIA GT World Cup in Macau.

Ferder, who previously worked for HWA and Schnitzer Motorsport, was present for Saturday’s presentation with Taniguchi, Kataoka and team director Ukyo Katayama.

Taniguchi and Kataoka finished fifth in this year’s GT300 standings, with a best finish of second for Kataoka in the first Fuji sprint race, while Goodsmile ended up third in the teams’ standings, boosted by a third-place finish for replacement drivers Yuhki Nakayama and Shunji Okumoto at Sepang.

That was due to a clash with the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, but the date clash no longer exists next year with the Sepang race taking place a week earlier.

No mention of any plans to race at Spa or any other IGTC rounds was made on Saturday.