Nissan GT500 Stars Join 5ZIGEN for Suzuka 1000km

Nissan SUPER GT stars Katsumasa Chiyo and Kazuki Hiramine will both participate in next month’s Suzuka 1000km as part of a Pro effort fielded by 5ZIGEN.

Chiyo and Hiramine will share the team’s No. 500 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 with another member of the Nissan GT500 stable, Atsushi Miyake, for the fourth round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge season on Sept. 11-13.

Miyake is part of 5ZIGEN’s regular crew in GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS together with Takayuki Aoki, who is not part of the lineup for Suzuka.

Both Chiyo and Hiramine, who won the 2022 SUPER GT title for Team Impul together with Bertrand Baguette, will be racing a GT-R for the first time in many years.

Chiyo last raced the car in 2019 for KCMG as part of a dual program in the IGTC and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, while Hiramine’s previous race outing in a GT-R was for the GTNET MotorSports Team in the Fuji 24 Hours in 2020.

However, Hiramine recently tested a GT-R for SUPER GT squad Helm Motorsports at Fuji as part of the tire test that followed last weekend’s race at the circuit.

Hiramine previously drove in the Suzuka 10 Hours in the SRO-organized event’s inaugural edition in 2018 with the JLOC Lamborghini squad.

5ZIGEN participated in last year’s Suzuka 1000km, winning the Silver class with Aoki, Yu Kanamaru and Yuya Motojima placing 15th overall.

It was one of two Nissans on the grid for the revived IGTC fixture alongside the Pro class-entered Team Handwork Challenge entry, run by B-Max Racing, which had Miyake in its lineup together with Iori Kimura and Daiki Sasaki.

It’s understood that this entry will not appear in this year’s Suzuka 1000km.