Round 2 of the 2026 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, the “FUJI GT 3 Hours RACE GW Special” was held on May 4th (Sun./Holiday) at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563m × 3 hours) in Shizuoka Prefecture. At the start of the race the air temperature reached 24 degrees Celsius. In the GT500 class the winner of the opening round of the season, the No. 36 au TOM’S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi / Kenta Yamashita) starting from 2nd position on the grid came through to take its second win in a row this season. In the GT300 class, the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Joao Paulo de Oliveira / Iori Kimura) started the race from 6th position on the grid and moved up to take the lead in the first half and go on to take its first win since 2023.

　In yesterday’s Qualifying Q2 rain had fallen at Fuji Speedway, but on the May 4th Race Day the rain that had been feared at first did not fall, and the entire race was run with a dry track condition. Some 50,000 spectators watched the start of a formation lap at 2:06 in the afternoon before the long 3- hour race burst into action.

　Taking the lead at the start was the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Nirei Fukuzumi) starting from pole position. Following in 2nd position came the No. 36 au TOM’S GR Supra (Kenta Yamashita) that started from 2nd position on the grid, with the No. 23 MOTUL Niterra Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi) in 3rd position and the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra (Rikuto Kobayashi) in 4th position, as the leaders came through the first lap of the race all in their Qualifying order.

Car No. 14 ran strongly to extend its lead in the early stages and managed to build a big lead of more than 20 seconds by the 34th lap over car No. 36 pursuing it in 2nd position. As for the car No. 36 in 2nd position, it seemed to develop machine trouble that kept it from running as usual, which forced Yamashita to drive with constraint. Behind it came cars No. 23 and No. 38, but on the Panasonic Automotive Corner (last corner) of the 14th lap No. 38 lost control when it tried to move up on the in-side of No. 23 and ended up colliding with No. 23. With this, No. 23 was pushed off the track, but with little resulting damage, and although this dropped it back to 4th position, it quickly recovered to resume racing. This incident resulted in No. 38 being given a drive-through penalty and sent it to its pit on the 26th lap. As a result, No. 23 was again in 3rd position.

One hour after the start, the three leading cars, No. 14, No. 36 and No. 23, all made their pit stops on the on the 40th lap. There, they made the first of the two refueling pit stops required by the race regulation. In this stop, car No. 14 changed drivers from Fukuzumi to Oshima and No. 23 also changed drivers from Takaboshi to Chiyo before returning to the race. By the time all of the cars in the GT500 class had finished their first pit stop on the 46th lap, car No. 14 was once again in the lead.

　In the middle stages of the race, as it reached the 47th lap the No. 37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara / Giuliano Alesi) that had been running in 6th position suddenly started to slow down in the second half of the course. From there it entered the home straight and came to a stop on the in-side of the track. With this, a Full Course Yellow (FCY) was declared from the 48th lap. At that point, car No. 14 had a lead of 28.947 sec.

After the recovery of the car, the FCY was terminated during the 50th lap. After the end of the 51st lap, No. 14 had a lead of 14 sec. From here, Tsuboi in car No. 36 began to advance, as the trouble that had hindered Yamashita after the start didn’t reappear in Tsuboi’s stint. By the end of the 60th lap, car No. 14’s lead was down to 12 sec. On the 70th lap it was down to just under 7 sec. and on the 75th lap it was just 4 sec.

Seeing this, No. 36 attempted an Undercut on the 76th lap and returned to the pit for its second pit stop, after which Tsuboi returned to the track still at the wheel. Meanwhile, on the 78th lap No. 14 changed drivers from Oshima to Fukuzumi, but when No. 14 returned to the track No. 36 was right on its tail, and at the Coca-Cola Corner of the 79th lap No. 36 easily move in on No. 14’s in-side and passed it to take the lead.

From there Fukuzumi in car No. 14 tried desperately to give chase and at one point moved to within 0.5 sec. of No. 36, but was unable to catch it. After that, the gap between the two cars varied in size until the 96th lap. However, on the 97th lap the margin between the two had grown to 3 sec., after which No. 36’s faster pace enabled it to increase its lead. From there, No. 36’s lead grew to 4.6 sec on the 100th lap, and by the 110th lap it was more than 11 sec.

By the 114th lap No. 36 maintained an 11 sec. lead, and when it reached the 115th lap the 3-hour race limit was reached. As the race entered its final lap, the No. 36 au TOM’S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi / Kenta Yamashita) succeeded in taking its second consecutive win after the one in the season’s opening round at Okayama. Since it had also won last year’s final round at Motegi, No. 36 (No. 1 at that time) succeeded in taking its third straight win.

Finishing in 2nd place came the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Nirei Fukuzumi / Kazuya Oshima) to give the GR Supra a one-two finish at the TOYOTA home course of Fuji. Finishing in the next spot was the No. 23 MOTUL Niterra Z (Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi) to take its first podium finish of the season, which gave the NISSAN Z NISMO GT500 its second podium finish of the season following the one by car No. 12 in the opening round.