On December 19th, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) announced the 2026 season Motorsport Program for Japan. According to the announcement, as in the 2025 season, the SUPER GT GT500 class will have Toyota GAZOO Racing Development (TGR-D) supplying six TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 machines to six teams with the aim of winning the Drivers Championship and the Team Championship for the fourth consecutive time in the 2026 season.
In the GT500 class, there are two teams that have undergone major changes in their organization. As for the team that won a third straight title in 2025 running as car No. 1, it has now changed to the signature TOM’S No. 36 for 2026, but the driver pair of Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita remains the same. Also, with Hiroaki Ishiura’s retirement as a GT500 class driver of car No. 38 as of this season, he will be replaced for 2026 by Rikuto Kobayashi, who has experience as a GT300 class winner and now moves up to the GT500 class to pair with Toshiki Oyu.
As for the GT300 class, eight teams have been announced for 2026 that will drive GR and Lexus brand cars. The No. 2 HYPER WATER Racing INGING will run with the same GR86 GT machine as in the 2025 season. As the new driving partner for Yuui Tsutsumi, Kazuhisa Urabe will be moving up from the 3rd driver position. The machine that the No. 20 team will use has not yet been decided, but the drivers will be the same pair of Hatsuyuki Hiranaka and Eijiro Shimizu as in the 2025 season. As for the No. 25 team, it has only been announced that their car will be based on the same GR Supra again in the 2026 season. The first driver for the apr No. 30 GR86 GT is again Hiroaki Nagai. Joining him as the second driver is Hibiki Taira, while newly joining the team as 3rd driver is Manabu Orido. Also, the team has changed their tire supplier to Yokohama tires. The car for No. 31 will be the LC500h GT (hybrid), and Kazuto Kotaka will return as the first driver, while again the second driver will be Miki Koyama. Also, joining as the team’s third driver will be Charlie Wurz. As for the No. 52 Saitama Green Brave team and the No. 60 LM corsa team, there will be no major changes from the 2025 season. For the No. 96 K-tunes Racing team, there will be no major changes in the machine or the drivers, and it is not yet decided what their tire supplier will be.
Also announced was a list of drivers who have been recommended for the “TGR Driver Challenge Program” aimed at training drivers to be capable of competing in the top categories, and for potential SUPER GT drivers the following five drivers were listed. – Rikuto Kobayashi: SUPER GT ‘GT500 class) TGR TEAM KeePer CERUMO – Charlie Wurz: SUPER GT GT300 class apr – Miki Koyama: SUPER GT GT300 class apr – Kiyoshi Umegaki: SUPER GT (GT300 class) CARGUY MKS RACING – Tokiya Tsuzuki: SUPER GT（GT300 class） team undecided
■TOYOTA GAZOO Racing 2026 SUPER GT participation program Excerpts from the “TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Announces 2026 Motorsport Program” https://toyotagazooracing.com/pressrelease/2025/1219-01/
・The team will compete again in 2026 with the GR Supra GT500. ・Through TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Development (TGR-D), support will be provided to six teams with six vehicles. ・Rikuto Kobayashi will join the lineup as a new driver.
Tires: BS = Bridgestone, YH = Yokohama
・TGR will continue to support customer motorsports activities for teams competing with GR and LEXUS brand vehicles.
Tires: BS = Bridgestone, MI = Michelin, DL = Dunlop, YH = Yokohama Only teams with confirmed third drivers are listed.
