Summer Fuji Round Set to Drop Sprint Format

SUPER GT looks set to axe the double sprint race format used in last year’s fourth round of the season at Fuji Speedway for the upcoming season.

The Japanese championship opted to experiment with holding three shorter races across the weekend for the summer fixture at the Toyota-owned venue, one with both classes on Saturday and then two standalone GT500 and GT300 contests on Sunday.

However, a decision appears to have been made to do away with the format after negative reception from competitors and fans alike regarding the spectacle.

The summer Fuji weekend failed to draw a significant increase in the number of spectators compared to the previous year, with 52,300 fans attending across two days — a negligible increase of just 100 from the previous year’s event.

Sportscar365 understands that competitors have been informed that the fourth round of the season at Fuji this year will be held as a regular 300km race.

Of this year’s eight races, only the Golden Week Fuji race in May and the penultimate round at Autopolis in October will divert from the standard format, with both poised to be held as three-hour timed events, as was the case last season.

As such, the total kilometers covered this season in races is on course to be the smallest figure since 2021, when all but one race was held over 300km.

One other change for 2026 is that the third round of the season at Sepang will feature a single practice session, after an extra session was added to the schedule last year to allow teams to refamiliarize themselves with the Malaysian track.

However, teams will still be permitted an extra set of slick tires for the Sepang round, with five sets available instead of the four at other 300km races, while seven sets of wet tires will be permitted instead of the usual six sets.

Six sets of slicks and eight sets of wets will be available for the two longer races at Fuji and Autopolis, an unchanged allocation from last season.