Second Motegi Race Added to This Year’s Schedule

SUPER GT has elected to turn its season-concluding Motegi round into a double-header, bringing the number of races for the 2026 season back up to eight.

The move, which has been rumoured for some time, was revealed in GTA Chairman Masaaki Bandoh’s regular press conference on Sunday morning ahead of the Fuji 300km.

An additional race will be scheduled at the Honda-owned venue on Saturday Nov. 7, ahead of the 300km season finale on Sunday Nov. 8.

The weekend’s initial practice session is therefore set to be held on Friday, instead of on Saturday morning as usual.

Distances for both races are not yet officially confirmed but Bandoh suggested both races could be held over a distance of 250km.

Saturday’s race effectively serves as a replacement for June’s cancelled Sepang round.

While Bandoh said at the time that a difficult economic situation made pencilling in a replacement impossible, it’s understood a desire  from teams led to a consideration to turn Motegi into a double-header race.

Success handicaps are set to be halved for the Saturday race before being removed for the finale, while the preceding event at Autopolis in October will now become a full handicap race.

Motegi is no stranger to hosting double-header finales: in 2016, two races were held at the track to make up for the cancellation of the Autopolis race after an earthquake in the region.

Bandoh outlined on Sunday morning that, following another recent major earthquake to have hit Kumamoto Prefecture, that this year’s Autopolis race is still slated to go ahead.

Autopolis itself announced on social media this week that its facilities were not seriously damaged by the quake and that none of its staff were injured.

However, Bandoh revealed that a planned GT Entrants’ Association (GTE) test in September has been cancelled.