Toyota Promotes Kobayashi as GT500 Lineups Revealed

Toyota junior driver Rikuto Kobayashi will step up to SUPER GT’s top GT500 class next season with the Cerumo team, the marque announced on Friday.

Kobayashi, a race winner this year in the GT300 class for CarGuy MKS Racing, will partner Toshiki Oyu aboard the No. 38 Toyota GR Supra, taking the place of Hiroaki Ishiura.

It marks the only change on Toyota’s GT500 roster, with the brand’s remaining five crews all remaining unchanged from this season.

Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita will bid for a third title aboard the renumbered No. 36 TOM’S GR Supra, while Ukyo Sasahara and Giuliano Alesi remain together in the sister No. 37 car.

Rookie Racing maintains an unchanged lineup of Kazuya Oshima and Nirei Fukuzumi, who is also driving for the same team in Super Formula next season, and SARD retains Sacha Fenestraz for a second season together with Yuhi Sekiguchi.

Racing Project Bandoh also keeps Sena Sakaguchi for a fifth consecutive season alongside Yuji Kunimoto, despite speculation linking him to Cerumo earlier in the year.

The No. 19 Bandoh GR Supra will again run on Yokohama tires next year, while the remaining five cars staying on the benchmark Bridgestone rubber.

Kobayashi, 20, makes the step up to the GT500 ranks after two seasons in GT300, the first of which came with apr in the No. 30 Toyota GR86 GT in 2024.

The Yamagata Prefecture-born driver was a late addition to the 2025 grid with CarGuy MKS Racing, as he and co-driver Zak O’Sullivan won at Suzuka and came close to a second triumph at Autopolis en route to third in the final standings.

Kobayashi is also a race winner in Super Taikyu aboard apr’s Lexus RC F GT3 this year.

Ishiura is expected to remain active in SUPER GT next season with the new Rookie Racing GT300 outfit, which is set to begin the year with a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo before switching to the recently-unveiled GR GT3 at some point during the year.

Confirmation of that program is expected to come next month.

O’Sullivan is set to remain at CarGuy MKS for 2026, with Toyota junior Kiyoshi Umegaki having been named as one of the drivers for the team’s Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

The driver lineups for six Toyota-affiliated GT300 teams were also revealed on Friday: Inging, Shade Racing, apr, Saitama Green Brave, LM Corsa and K-tunes Racing.

Hibiki Taira moves from Inging to join apr’s No. 30 Toyota GR86 GT — which reverts to Yokohama tires — alongside Hiroaki Nagai and Manabu Orido.

Kazuto Kotaka meanwhile has been designated the lead driver for the No. 31 apr Lexus LC500h alongside Miki Koyama, who stays for a second season, and new third driver Charlie Wurz, son of two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Alexander.

Stepping up from a third driver role to replace Taira aboard Inging’s GR86 GT alongside Yuui Tsutsumi is Kazuhisa Urabe, the son of team owner Haruhisa Urabe.

Shade Racing (Katsuyaki Hiranaka/Eijiro Shimizu), Saitama Green Brave (Hiroki Yoshida/Seita Nonaka), LM Corsa (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno) and K-tunes Racing (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi) all keep the same lineups as previously.

Notably, Shade’s car model is listed as ‘TBD’ after a troubled season in which its GR86 GT was forced to miss two races due to fire damage, but the team’s ongoing relationship with tire supplier Michelin is confirmed.

Tsuchiya Engineering will use its GR Supra again next year but with drivers unconfirmed.

Another Toyota junior driver, Tokiya Suzuki, was also confirmed for a GT300 program next season with an as-yet unnamed team.