2016 Super GT Series

The 2016 Autobacs Super GT Series is the 23rd season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era, and the 12th season under the name Super GT. It is the 33rd overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship. The season began on April 10 and ended on November 13, after 8 races.

Schedule

Round	Race	Circuit	Date
1	Okayama GT 300 km	Okayama International Circuit	April 10
2	Fuji GT 500 km	Fuji Speedway	May 4
4	Sugo GT 300 km	Sportsland SUGO	July 24
5	Fuji GT 300 km	Fuji Speedway	August 7
6	45th International Suzuka 1000km 1000 km	Suzuka Circuit	August 28
7	Buriram United Super GT Race 300 km	Chang International Circuit	October 9
3	Motegi GT 250 km I[1]	Twin Ring Motegi	November 12
8	Motegi GT 250 km II[1]		November 13

Calendar Changes

• The Super GT in Kyushu 300km at Autopolis was scheduled for May 22nd as the third round of the season but was subsequently cancelled in the aftermath of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. On May 20th, series organizers announced that the final weekend at Twin Ring Motegi would host two 250 kilometer races, with the race on Saturday being promoted as "Round 3" of the championship as it replaces the Autopolis race.
• The SUGO GT 300km was brought forward to July from its previous date in September.
• The overseas round at Buriram, Thailand was moved from its 2015 date of June to October. The series first visited the circuit in October 2014.

Suzuka Motegi Fuji SUGO Okayama 2016 Japanese venues

Chang 2016 International venue

Drivers and Teams

GT500

Team	Make	Car	No.	Drivers	Tyre	Rounds
Nismo[2]	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	1	Tsugio Matsuda	M	All
				Ronnie Quintarelli		All
Lexus Team LeMans WAKO'S[3]	Lexus	Lexus RC F	6	Andrea Caldarelli	B	All
				Kazuya Oshima		All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri[4]	Honda	Honda NSX-GT	8	Kosuke Matsuura	B	All
				Tomoki Nojiri		All
Team Impul[2]	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	12	João Paulo de Oliveira	B	All
				Hironobu Yasuda		All
Drago Modulo Honda Racing[4]	Honda	Honda NSX-GT	15	Hideki Mutoh	B	All
				Oliver Turvey		1-2, 4-6
				Tadasuke Makino		7, 3, 8
Keihin Real Racing[4]	Honda	Honda NSX-GT	17	Takashi Kogure	B	All
				Koudai Tsukakoshi		All
Lexus Team WedsSport Bandoh[3]	Lexus	Lexus RC F	19	Yuji Kunimoto	Y	All
				Yuhi Sekiguchi		All
Kondo Racing[2]	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	24	Daiki Sasaki	Y	All
				Masataka Yanagida		All
Lexus Team TOM'S[3]	Lexus	Lexus RC F	36	Nick Cassidy	B	All
				Daisuke Ito		All
			37	Ryō Hirakawa	B	All
				James Rossiter		All
Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo[3]	Lexus	Lexus RC F	38	Hiroaki Ishiura	B	All
				Yuji Tachikawa		All
Lexus Team SARD[3]	Lexus	Lexus RC F	39	Kohei Hirate	B	All
				Heikki Kovalainen		All
MOLA[2]	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	46	Satoshi Motoyama	M	All
				Katsumasa Chiyo		1–4, 6-8
				Mitsunori Takaboshi		5
Nakajima Racing[4]	Honda	Honda NSX-GT	64	Bertrand Baguette	D	All
				Daisuke Nakajima		All
Team Kunimitsu[4]	Honda	Honda NSX-GT	100	Takuya Izawa	B	All
				Naoki Yamamoto		All

GT300

Team	Make	Car	No.	Drivers	Tyre	Rounds
Gainer Racing[5]	Nissan	Nissan GT-R GT3	0	André Couto	D	All
				Ryuichiro Tomita		All
	Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG GT3	11	Katsuyuki Hiranaka		All
				Björn Wirdheim		All
Cars Tokai Dream28[5]	Lotus	Lotus Evora	2	Hiroki Katoh	Y	All
				Kazuho Takahashi		All
				Tadasuke Makino		6
NDDP Racing[5]	Nissan	Nissan GT-R GT3	3	Kazuki Hoshino	Y	All
				Jann Mardenborough		All
Goodsmile Racing & Team Ukyo[5]	Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG GT3	4	Tatsuya Kataoka	Y	All
				Nobuteru Taniguchi		All
Team Mach[5]	Toyota	Toyota 86	5	Tetsuji Tamanaka	Y	1–2, 6, 3, 8
				Junichiro Yamashita		1–2, 4-6
				Masami Kageyama		2, 4-6, 3, 8
BMW Team Studie[5]	BMW	BMW M6 GT3	7	Seiji Ara	Y	All
				Jörg Müller		All
				Augusto Farfus		6[6]
Gulf Racing with Pacific[5]	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R	9	Ryohei Sakaguchi	Y	All
				Hiroki Yoshida		All
				Dylan Derdaele		2
Team Up Garage with Bandoh[5]	Toyota	Toyota 86	18	Yuhki Nakayama	Y	All
				Shinnosuke Yamada		All
Audi Team Hitotsuyama[5]	Audi	Audi R8 LMS	21	Tomonobu Fujii	D	All
				Richard Lyons		All
R'Qs Motor Sports[5]	Mercedes-Benz	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	22	Masaki Jyonai	Y	All
				Hisashi Wada		All
				Tohjiro Azuma		6
VivaC team Tsuchiya[5]	Toyota	Toyota 86	25	Takamitsu Matsui	Y	All
				Takeshi Tsuchiya		All
				Kenta Yamashita		6[7]
Team Taisan SARD[5]	Audi	Audi R8 LMS ultra (Rd. 1) Audi R8 LMS (Rd. 2, 4-6, 3, 8)	26	Shogo Mitsuyama	Y	1-2, 4-6
				Yuya Motojima		1-2, 4-6, 3, 8
				Tsubasa Kondo		3, 8
apr[5]	Toyota	Toyota Prius	30	Hiroaki Nagai	Y	All
				Kota Sasaki		All
			31	Yuichi Nakayama	B	All
				Koki Saga		All
Excellence Porsche Team KTR[5]	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R	33	Naoya Yamano	Y	All
				Jörg Bergmeister		1–2, 7, 3, 8
				Tim Bergmeister		4
				Yuya Sakamoto		5-6
Dijon Racing[5]	Nissan	Nissan GT-R GT3	48	Hiroshi Takamori	Y	1-2, 4, 6
				Masaki Tanaka		1–2, 6
				Takayuki Aoki		2, 4-6, 3, 8
				Mitsunori Takaboshi		5, 3, 8
Arnage Racing[5]	Mercedes-Benz	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	50	Rintaro Kubo	Y	All
				Hideto Yasuoka		All
				Masaki Kano		2
LM corsa[5]	Ferrari	Ferrari 488 GT3	51	Morio Nitta	Y	All
				Akihiro Tsuzuki		All
				Shigekazu Wakisaka		2, 6
	Lexus	Lexus RC F GT3	60	Akira Iida		All
				Hiroki Yoshimoto		All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri[5]	BMW	BMW M6 GT3	55	Takashi Kobayashi	B	All
				Shinichi Takagi		All
R&D Sport[5]	Subaru	Subaru BRZ	61	Takuto Iguchi	D	All
				Hideki Yamauchi		All
Lamborghini Team Direction[5]	Lamborghini	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	63	Naoki Yokomizo	Y	All
				Adrian Zaugg		All
K2 R&D Leon Racing[5]	Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG GT3	65	Naoya Gamou	Y	All
				Haruki Kurosawa		All
JLOC[5]	Lamborghini	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	87	Shinya Hosokawa	Y	All
				Kimiya Sato		All
				Taiyo Iida		2, 6
			88	Kazuki Hiramine		All
				Manabu Orido		All
Lamborghini Team Direction Shift[5]	Lamborghini	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	108	Kyosuke Mineo		1–2, 5-6, 3, 8
				Kei Cozzolino	Y	1–2
				Jono Lester		5-6
				Hironori Takeuchi		6, 3, 8
Rn-sports[5]	Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG GT3	111	Kazuya Tsuruta	Y	All
				Masayuki Ueda		All
				Keisuke Ishihara		6
Tomei Sports[5]	Nissan	Nissan GT-R GT3	360	Yusaku Shibata	Y	1-2, 4-6, 3, 8
				Atsushi Tanaka		1–2, 5-6, 3, 8
				Shota Kiyohara		2, 4, 6

Driver Changes

Team Transfers

• Andrea Caldarelli switches from the KeePer TOM's team to the Wako's LeMans team.
• Yuji Kunimoto moves over from Team LeMans to drive for the WedsSport BANDOH team.
• Two-time and defending 1000 km Suzuka winner James Rossiter switches from the Petronas TOM's team to the KeePer TOM's team.
• Takashi Kogure and Hideki Mutoh swap seats within the Honda fleet. Mutoh will drive for Drago Modulo Honda Racing alongside Oliver Turvey, while Kogure joins Koudai Tsukakoshi at Keihin Real Racing.
• Katsumasa Chiyo steps up to the GT500 class for 2016 driving for MOLA, after helping GAINER secure their first GT300 championship last season.
• Masataka Yanagida moves from MOLA to Kondo Racing, his third different team in four seasons.
• Ryuichiro Tomita will now partner Andre Couto on a full-time basis in the #0 GAINER Nissan GT-R.
• Kota Sasaki will drive a second Toyota Prius GT for apr.

Entering Super GT

• Reigning Japanese Formula 3 champion Nick Cassidy joins the number 36 TOM's team. He is the first driver from New Zealand to race in the series since Mark Porter in 1998.
• GT Academy champion and Nissan factory driver Jann Mardenborough joins the NDDP team, partnering Kazuki Hoshino.
• Former Rolex 24 champion Jörg Bergmeister joins Excellence Porsche Team KTR on a full-time basis, after driving two rounds for the team in 2014.
• WEC LMP1 driver Pierre Kaffer will drive for Audi Team Braille in his debut GT300 campaign.
• Porsche Carrera Cup Japan champion Yuya Motojima, as well as fellow PCCJ drivers Rintaro Kubo and Hiroaki Nagai, will race in GT300 for Team Taisan SARD, Arnage Racing, and apr respectively.
• Shinnosuke Yamada graduates from the F4 Japanese Championship to race for Team Upgarage with Bandoh.
• South African Adrian Zaugg and Japanese-Italian driver Kei Cozzolino will each make their Super GT debuts for Lamborghini Team Direction.

Leaving Super GT

• Three-time GT500 champion Juichi Wakisaka announced his retirement from racing at the Toyota Gazoo Racing press conference on February 4. He will stay in the series as the team principal of Lexus Team Wako's LeMans.
• Inaugural GT Academy champion Lucas Ordóñez will return to racing in Europe, competing in the Blancpain GT Series for NISMO RJN Motorsport.
• Mitsunori Takaboshi left the series after a successful rookie season with NDDP, to drive in Blancpain GT. However, he returned for the fourth race of the season at Fuji Speedway.
• Former GT500 champion Michael Krumm has no plans to race in Super GT in 2016, after competing for Kondo Racing last season.
• Alexandre Imperatori leaves Super GT to focus on his World Endurance Championship campaign with Rebellion Racing.
• Former 24h Nürburgring winner Christian Mamerow will not return to the series after running a partial campaign with Audi Team Racing Tech.

Team Changes

GT500

• Au replaces Petronas as the title sponsor of the number 36 TOM's RC-F.
• Petrochem company WAKO's will replace Eneos as the title sponsor of Team Le Mans.
• Forum Engineering takes over from D'Station as the title sponsor of Kondo Racing.

GT300

• Goodsmile Racing with Team UKYO, the number 11 GAINER team, LEON Racing, and Rn-sports will field the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 in 2016.
• EVA Racing becomes the primary sponsor of the Rn-sports AMG.
• apr will field two new Toyota Prius GTs, with the number 31 car on Bridgestone tyres, and the number 30 on Yokohama tyres.
• Audi Team Hitotsuyama will debut the second-generation Audi R8 LMS and switch from Yokohama to Dunlop Tyres.
• BMW Team Studie and Autobacs Racing Team Aguri will use the new BMW M6 GT3 in 2016. ARTA switches to BMW after the retirement of their previous Honda CR-Z, while Studie receives additional support from BMW.
• Gulf Racing have merged with Pacific Racing Team to form Gulf Racing with PACIFIC, fielding an all-new Porsche 911 GT3-R.
• Excellence Porsche Team KTR will also field the new 911 GT3-R, and will also receive additional support from Porsche.
• LM Corsa's number 51 team will switch from BMW to the new Ferrari 488 GT3 for 2016. The number 60 team will continue to use the Lexus RC-F GT3.
• JLOC will be one of two teams introducing the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 to Super GT in 2016.
• Direction Racing change their name to Lamborghini Team Direction, and will also field two Huracán GT3s.
• After withdrawing from the 2015 season, Team Taisan have returned to GT300 in alliance with SARD.
• Before the start of the season, an entry was announced for Audi Team Braille, with a new 2016 Audi R8 LMS and veteran World Endurance Championship driver Pierre Kaffer. However, the team never appeared in the 2016 season.

Mid-season changes

• From the secound round, Team Taisan SARD have switched to a 2016 model Audi R8 LMS.

Results

Round	Circuit	Date	Class	Pole Position	Race Winner
1	Okayama International Circuit Report	10 April	GT500	No. 37 Lexus Team KeePer TOM'S	No. 1 Nismo
				James Rossiter Ryō Hirakawa	Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli
			GT300	No. 25 VivaC team Tsuchiya	No. 65 LEON Racing
				Takamitsu Matsui Takeshi Tsuchiya	Naoya Gamou Haruki Kurosawa
2	Fuji Speedway Report	4 May	GT500	No. 12 Team Impul	No. 1 Nismo
				Hironobu Yasuda Joao Paulo de Oliveira	Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli
			GT300	No. 55 ARTA	No. 3 NDDP Racing
				Takashi Kobayashi Shinichi Takagi	Kazuki Hoshino Jann Mardenborough
3	Sportsland SUGO Report	24 July	GT500	No. 6 Lexus Team LeMans WAKO'S	No. 24 Kondo Racing
				Andrea Caldarelli Kazuya Oshima	Daiki Sasaki Masataka Yanagida
			GT300	No. 25 VivaC team Tsuchiya	No. 31 apr
				Takamitsu Matsui Takeshi Tsuchiya	Yuichi Nakayama Koki Saga
4	Fuji Speedway Report	7 August	GT500	No. 12 Team Impul	No. 12 Team Impul
				Hironobu Yasuda Joao Paulo de Oliveira	Hironobu Yasuda Joao Paulo de Oliveira
			GT300	No. 55 ARTA	No. 55 ARTA
				Takashi Kobayashi Shinichi Takagi	Takashi Kobayashi Shinichi Takagi
5	Suzuka Circuit Report	28 August	GT500	No. 15 Drago Modulo Honda Racing	No. 38 Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo
				Hideki Mutoh Oliver Turvey	Hiroaki Ishiura Yuji Tachikawa
			GT300	No. 18 Team Up Garage with Bandoh	No. 61 R&D Sport
				Yuhki Nakayama Shinnosuke Yamada	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi
6	Chang International Circuit Report	9 October	GT500	No. 19 Lexus Team WedsSport Bandoh	No. 19 Lexus Team WedsSport Bandoh
				Yuji Kunimoto Yuhi Sekiguchi	Yuji Kunimoto Yuhi Sekiguchi
			GT300	No. 25 VivaC team Tsuchiya	No. 25 VivaC team Tsuchiya
				Takamitsu Matsui Takeshi Tsuchiya	Takamitsu Matsui Takeshi Tsuchiya
7	Twin Ring Motegi Report	12 November	GT500	No. 39 Lexus Team SARD	No. 24 Kondo Racing
				Kohei Hirate Heikki Kovalainen	Daiki Sasaki Masataka Yanagida
			GT300	No. 11 Gainer Racing	No. 21 Audi Team Hitotsuyama
				Katsuyuki Hiranaka Björn Wirdheim	Tomonobu Fujii Richard Lyons
8	Twin Ring Motegi Report	13 November	GT500	No. 39 Lexus Team SARD	No. 39 Lexus Team SARD
				Kohei Hirate Heikki Kovalainen	Kohei Hirate Heikki Kovalainen
			GT300	No. 31 apr	No. 25 VivaC team Tsuchiya
				Yuichi Nakayama Koki Saga	Takamitsu Matsui Takeshi Tsuchiya

Championship Standings

Scoring system

Drivers' championships

GT500

Driver Ranking GT500 2016 Series[8] Rank Driver OKA FUJ SUG[9] FUJ SUZ CHA MOT MOT Points 1 Heikki Kovalainen Kohei Hirate 7 2 2 8 8 7 2 1 82 2 Kazuya Oshima Andrea Caldarelli 4 5 4 9 4 3 4 2 69 3 Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli 1 1 9 4 6 14 9 7 62 4 Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuji Kunimoto 9 8 5 10 5 1 5 3 58 5 Daisuke Ito Nick Cassidy 8 4 11 5 2 11 3 4 54 6 Yuji Tachikawa Hiroaki Ishiura 6 14 3 7 1 15 6 9 52 7 Daiki Sasaki Masataka Yanagida 13 9 1 Ret 12 13 1 10 43 8 Hironobu Yasuda Joao Paulo de Oliveira 5 11 Ret 1 Ret 4 7 8 43 9 James Rossiter Ryo Hirakawa 2 3 8 12 Ret 9 Ret 5 38 10 Satoshi Motoyama 3 7 13 Ret 3 12 8 6 36 11 Koudai Tsukakoshi Takashi Kogure 11 12 6 2 10 6 Ret 11 27 12 Katsumasa Chiyo 3 7 13 Ret 12 8 6 23 13 Hideki Mutoh 12 13 7 Ret Ret 2 12 15 20 14 Naoki Yamamoto Takuya Izawa 10 Ret 10 3 7 10 10 12 20 15 Kosuke Matsuura Tomoki Nojiri Ret 6 14 6 9 8 11 13 16 16 Tadasuke Makino 2 12 15 15 17 Mitsunori Takaboshi 3 13 18 Daisuke Nakajima Bertrand Baguette 14 10 12 11 11 5 13 14 7 19 Oliver Turvey 12 13 7 Ret Ret 5 Rank Driver OKA FUJ SUG FUJ SUZ CHA MOT MOT Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Excluded (EX)

GT300

Driver Ranking GT300 2016 Series^[10]

Rank	Driver	OKA	FUJ	SUG[11]	FUJ	SUZ	CHA	MOT	MOT	Points
1	Takeshi Tsuchiya Takamitsu Matsui	6	3	2	13	22	1	7	1	78
2	Koki Saga Yuichi Nakayama	12	20	1	25	2	5	24	2	60
3	Richard Lyons Tomonobu Fujii	7	7	Ret	2	6	24	1	4	57
4	Kazuki Hoshino Jann Mardenborough	10	1	5	6	10	2	13	6	52
5	Shinichi Takagi Takashi Kobayashi	11	2	Ret	1	14	3	Ret	DNS	48
6	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	23	11	3	3	1	Ret	23	13	47
7	Nobuteru Taniguchi Tatsuya Kataoka	2	18	7	5	5	8	18	3	47
8	Andre Couto Ryuichiro Tomita	8	5	11	9	3	4	5	15	38
9	Katsuyuki Hiranaka Bjorn Wirdheim	4	Ret	4	7	Ret	9	4	10	32
10	Naoya Yamano	22	23	14	24	7	7	2	5	30
11	Manabu Orido Kazuki Hiramine	9	25	6	4	9	10	3	Ret	30
12	Haruki Kurosawa Naoya Gamou	1	Ret	16	23	8	11	9	24	26
13	Jörg Bergmeister	22	23				7	2	5	25
14	Yuhki Nakayama Shinnosuke Yamada	15	4	8	10	4	22	12	9	25
15	Jörg Müller Seiji Ara	3	24	10	20	DNS	6	15	12	17
16	Akihiro Tsuzuki Morio Nitta	5	6	9	11	11	12	11	Ret	13
17	Yuya Motojima	20	15	19	8	20		6	7	12
18	Tsubasa Kondo							6	7	9
19	Shinya Hosokawa Kimiya Sato	13	8	22	19	17	21	8	11	6
20	Shigekazu Wakisaka		6							5
21	Yuya Sakamoto				24	7				5
22	Ryohei Sakaguchi Hiroki Yoshida	DNS	Ret	13	21	13	17	22	8	3
23	Shogo Mitsuyama	20	15	19	8	20				3
24	Hiroaki Nagai Kota Sasaki	14	9	18	15	24	14	16	17	2
25	Takayuki Aoki		10	17	12	21		10	14	2
26	Masaki Tanaka	27	10			21				1
27	Hiroshi Takamori	27	10	17		21				1
28	Mitsunori Takaboshi				12			10	14	1
Rank	Driver	OKA	FUJ	SUG	FUJ	SUZ	CHA	MOT	MOT	Points

References

External links

• Official website