Suzuka 1000km Will Award Points to GT300 Teams

Next year’s Suzuka 1000km round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge will award points to SUPER GT’s GT300 runners, it has been confirmed by the Japanese series.

It was announced ahead of June’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa that SRO Motorsports Group, which runs the IGTC, would enter into a closer partnership with SUPER GT promoter GTA to boost the profile of the Suzuka 1000km in 2027 onwards.

At that time, the SRO stopped shy of announcing the race, slated for Sept. 4-5, would effectively form part of the championship schedule for GT300 runners.

But such a possibility was hinted at by SUPER GT’s provisional calendar, released on Friday, and then confirmed by GTA chairman Masaaki Bandoh in his regular press conference on Sunday morning ahead of the Fuji 300km.

It means the 2027 SUPER GT season will be fought over nine rounds for the GT300 runners, including the eight regular races.

The news came shortly after it was revealed that Dunlop will become the one-make tire supplier in the GT300 class next season.

Balance of Performance adjustments will be used in a bid to equalize the SUPER GT runners with the IGTC regulars that use Pirelli tires.

Due to limited grid spaces, it is possible that not all GT300 teams will be able to participate, with 29 cars currently active in the class this season.

In that case, preference would be given to teams with ‘A’ seeding rights, as was the case for last year’s Sepang round in which only the top 18 ranked GT300 teams were able to race.

SUPER GT has already implemented a system of dropped scores in the interests of fairness towards teams that cannot participate in all rounds.

SRO has yet to release a provisional entry list for this year’s Suzuka 1000km, but the race appears unlikely to feature a significant contingent of SUPER GT outfits.

The 2025 event only attracted one runner from the series that was not already active in SRO competition, Goodsmile Racing, and it’s understood the Mercedes-AMG team will not be on the grid this year, preferring to focus on its SUPER GT campaign instead.