GT spectacle in Japan: 28 GT3 cars at the Suzuka 1000km

A diverse mix of teams and manufacturers will battle it out for victory in the summer endurance race when, in a month’s time, the penultimate round of the 2026 Intercontinental GT Challenge gets underway as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Suzuka 1000-km race (11–13 September).

The provisional entry list, comprising 28 cars, includes eight manufacturers, seven of which – Chevrolet, Ferrari, Ford, Lexus, Mercedes-AMG, Nissan and Porsche – are competing in the Pro class.

Last year’s winner, BMW, is also on the list, but has no obvious contender for overall victory among its four M4 GT3 Evos, even though most of them have works drivers at the wheel.

As was the case in 2025, and in keeping with the IGTC’s ethos, more than two-thirds of the cars are entered by regional Asian teams. Twelve of these are from Japan.

Home fans and neutral spectators will also be delighted to see Nissan and Lexus on the list. What’s more, both are likely to be in the thick of the battle at the front thanks to the Japanese Pro driver line-ups from Team 5ZIGEN and K-tunes. A highlight of the event will be Super GT star Katsumasa Chiyo, who is once again getting behind the wheel of a GT-R NISMO – the car with which he made his name.

Neither of the two Japanese brands is eligible to score points in the IGTC drivers’ or manufacturers’ championships; these are reserved for the six registered brands in the global GT3 series. All are represented at Suzuka.

There is also a record number of entrants in the IGTC Independent Cup. Kenny Habul, Jefri Ibrahim, Ralf Bohn, Johannes Zelger, Jonathan Hui and championship leader Li Kerong last competed together at Bathurst and are now returning alongside a seventh registered amateur driver: Adrian D’Silva.

A DTM clash for overall championship leader Maro Engel offers his Mercedes-AMG team-mates Luca Stolz and Maxime Martin the opportunity to reduce their deficit of 17 and 18 points respectively. This year’s winners of the ADAC Ravenol 24h Nürburgring will share one of the two Craft Bamboo cars with Japanese star and Super Formula leader Kakunoshin Ohta.

Absolute’s Porsches finished second and fourth in 2025 and, thanks to two particularly strong Pro teams, are likely to be in contention for the top spots once again. The partnership with AO Racing, in which Rexy’s long-lost ancestor ‘Bushi Rex’ adorns the No. 8 911 GT3 R, will undoubtedly be one of the most popular line-ups of the year.

Porsche far outnumbers Mercedes-AMG in terms of the total number of cars, but both have two clear contenders for the overall victory. And that could prove decisive in the battle for this year’s IGTC Constructors’ Championship, in which Stuttgart leads Affalterbach by eight points.

JMR’s line-up remains unchanged: Nick Catsburg, Alexander Sims and IndyCar ace Scott McLaughlin are joining forces for the first time since Suzuka nearly 12 months ago, when the Corvette completed the podium. This remains Chevrolet’s best IGTC result to date.

Ferrari also has a Pro entry in store thanks to the Japanese team PONOS RACING, which brings together former Super GT500 champion Tadasuke Makino and the current GT300 leader Seita Nonaka.

Meanwhile, Ford is sending a Mustang to Suzuka for the first time via its Australian partners, Miedecke Motorsport by Team MPC. The works drivers Christopher Mies, Dennis Olsen and Frederic Vervisch know the car inside out, with the latter having already won the Summer Endurance Race with Audi in 2019 – the same year in which Olsen completed the podium.

Max Hesse is the highest-placed BMW driver in sixth place in the overall standings, but he still needs to make up 30 points on Engel in the final two races if he is to retain any hope of following in the footsteps of last year’s winner, Kelvin van der Linde. The KRC-run M4, which he shares with Ruan Cun Fan and Maxime Oosten, will be among the favourites to win the Bronze class.

The Suzuka 1000 km race begins on Friday 11 September with test sessions and a night-time practice session. Pre-qualifying and qualifying are scheduled for Saturday, before the teams line up for the start in the dark on Sunday.

The SRO has published the provisional entry list here.