Rookie Racing Reveals GT300 Entry Plans

Toyota-aligned outfit Rookie Racing has revealed plans to contest the upcoming SUPER GT season in the GT300 class with Hiroaki Ishiura as its lead driver.

Announced on Sunday at the Tokyo Auto Salon, the team owned by Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda will expand into the series’ lower class for the first time with a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to be shared by 2007 GT300 champion Ishiura and Tokiya Suzuki.

Ishiura steps down to the GT300 ranks for the first time since his title-winning campaign, having announced plans to end an 18-year spell in the GT500 class last summer.

He is joined aboard the Rookie Mercedes-AMG by Toyota junior Suzuki, who won last year’s Japanese Formula 4 title and will also race in Super Formula Lights this year.

Rookie has history fielding Mercedes-AMG machinery, having won the Super Taikyu title with a GT3 Evo in 2023-24, also scoring overall Fuji 24 Hours honors in both years.

It is understood that a mid-season switch to the recently-revealed GR GT3 remains a possibility, but no confirmation of such plans was provided on Sunday.

Ishiura is one of the drivers to have played a role in the car’s development along with fellow GT300 champions Naoya Gamou and Tatsuya Kataoka.

Kazuya Oshima and Nirei Fukuzumi will continue as a pairing for a third consecutive season in Rookie’s GT500 entry this year, as confirmed by Toyota last month.

As well as SUPER GT, Rookie will maintain a presence in Super Taikyu next year with the liquid hydrogen-powered Toyota GR Corolla H2 concept driven by Toyoda (under his usual pseudonym ‘Morizo’), his son Daisuke, Ishiura and Oshima.

The same lineup will tackle the Nürburgring 24 with a GR Yaris fielded under the Toyota Gazoo Rookie Racing banner, the only car confirmed by the marque so far.