GT300 Mule Cars Add Intrigue to Motegi Test Entry

A pair of GT300 mule cars have been added to the entry list for next week’s two-day SUPER GT test at Mobility Resort Motegi, in which 28 cars are set to participate.

The latest GT Entrants’ Association test on Oct. 6-7 is due to feature five GT500 cars and 23 GT300s, including two cars that are not regular race machines.

One of these is the No. 610 STI S001 entered by R&D Sport, the operation behind the factory Subaru GT300 team. The car is understood to be a test mule for the 2026 Subaru engine, and will be driven by regular duo Hideki Yamauchi and Takuto Iguchi.

Yamauchi and Iguchi will also share driving duties in the regular No. 61 BRZ for the test, joined by Subaru reserve and Sepang super-sub Shunji Okumoto.

The other supplementary entry, the No. 640 Modulo NSX, is from Nakajima Racing, which is running an NSX GT3 as a Dunlop development car with its No. 64 Civic Type R-GT damaged from its crash from the previous race at Sugo last month.

Nakajima regulars Takuya Izawa and Riki Okusa will take turns at the wheel of the NSX in what will mark the car’s first public SUPER GT test outing since its final race appearance in last year’s Suzuka season finale.

The withdrawal of the No. 64 Civic leaves the GT500 class with five entries for the test: the two Yokohama-shod cars, the Racing Project Bandoh Toyota GR Supra and the Sugo-winning No. 24 Kondo Racing Nissan Z NISMO, plus three cars from Bridgestone, the No. 12 Team Impul Nissan, the Rookie Racing Toyota and the Team Kunimitsu Honda.

Bridgestone hosted its own test at Motegi on Sep. 4-5, but the second day of this was rained out, meaning that the Bridgestone cars have four hours of running left to use.

Interestingly, the September test was attended by the No. 1 TOM’S GR Supra, but the championship-leading car will not return for this test, with Rookie taking its place.

The reason for TOM’S skipping the test are unclear, although it is understood to be a team decision.

As revealed by the team on Tuesday, Shade Racing is skipping the Motegi test, as well as the next round of the series at Autopolis, due to crash damage sustained at Sugo.

However, a freshly-prepared D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo is due to run at Motegi, with Tomonobu Fujii handling test duties solo.

A full entry list for the Motegi test can be seen below. All cars will be driven by their regular full-season drivers, except where indicated.

GT500 entries:

No. 12 Team Impul Nissan Z NISMO
No. 14 Rookie Racing Toyota GR Supra
No. 19 Racing Project Bandoh Toyota GR Supra (Kazuto Kotaka third driver)
No. 24 Kondo Racing Nissan Z NISMO
No. 100 Team Kunimitsu Honda Civic Type R-GT

GT300 full-season entries:

No. 0 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 (Natsu Sakaguchi third driver)
No. 2 Inging Toyota GR86 GT
No. 4 Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
No. 6 Velorex Ferrari 296 GT3
No. 11 Gainer Tanax Nissan Z
No. 18 Team UpGarage Mercedes-AMG GT3
No. 22 R’Qs Motor Sports Mercedes-AMG GT3
No. 25 Hoppy Team Tsuchiya GR Supra GT
No. 30 apr Toyota GR86 GT
No. 31 apr Lexus LC500h GT
No. 45 PONOS Racing Ferrari 296 GT3
No. 48 NILZZ Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 (Daiki Fujiwara, Keiichi Inoue extra drivers)
No. 52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT
No. 56 Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 (Yu Kanamaru replaces JP de Oliveira)
No. 60 LM Corsa Lexus LC500 GT
No. 61 R&D Sport Subaru BRZ (Shunji Okumoto third driver)
No. 62 Helm Motorsports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3
No. 65 LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
No. 96 K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3
No. 666 Seven x Seven Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (Tsubasa Kondo absent)
No. 777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo (Charlie Fagg absent)

Additional GT300 entries:

No. 610 R&D Sport STI S001 (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi)
No. 640 Nakajima Racing Honda NSX GT3 (Takuya Izawa/Riki Okusa)