On November 9th (Mon.) the day after the final race of the 2026 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 8, the “MOTEGI GT 250km RACE GRAND FINAL” held on November 8th at the Mobility Resort Motegi in Tochigi Prefecture, 6 cars from the GT500 class and 26 cars from the GT300 class participated in the development tests for the 2027 season official tire supplier tires. Following the development tests conducted at Round 7 at Autopolis, these were the fourth tests to be held.
◎Morning session 9:30～11:00 Weather: rain / track surface: wet (due to worsening conditions the tests were stopped 30 minutes early) ◎Afternoon session 12:30～15:00 Weather: rain / track surface: wet (started 30 minutes earlier than scheduled)
For the SUPER GT 2027 season the official tire supplier for the GT500 class will be Bridgestone and the official supplier for the GT300 class will be DUNLOP. The final race of the season held until the day before was blessed with clear skies, but the day of these tests had rain from the morning of the test day that made the track wet, and this made these the first tests to be run in wet conditions.
The participating cars of the GT500 class included the same three cars that had been participating in the tests until now, namely the TGR-D No. 90 GR Supra GT500 (Sho Tsuboi/ Kenta Yamashita / Nirei Fukuzumi), the HRC No. 99 HRC PRELUDE-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino / Yuto Nomura/ Igor Omura Fraga), the NMC No. 230 Z NISMO GT500 (Kazuki Hiramine / Teppei Natori), as well as six other cars including the No .8 #8 ARTA MUGEN HRC PRELUDE-GT (Kakunoshin Ohta / Hiroki Otsu /Tomoki Nojiri / Ren Sato), the No.19 WedsSport BANDOH GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto / Sena Sakaguchi), the No. 23 MOTUL Niterra Z (Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi). Among these, the No. 19 GR Supra was running the tests for the first time on Bridgestone tires. As for the GT300 class, the tests were run with the largest number of entries yet, 26 in all. Also, the drivers were basically the same ones that had been driving throughout the series.
The morning test session started from 9:00. When the course was opened for the GT300 class, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R＆D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi / Shunji Okumoto) was the first to take to the track, and then the others followed to begin their runs. In this session, the GT500 class development cars – the No. 90 GR Supra GT500, the No. 99 HRC PRELUDE-GT, and the No. 230 Z NISMO GT500 – were driven by Kenta Yamashita, Tadasuke Makino, and the duo of Kazuki Hiramine and Teppei Natori, respectively.
In addition to the fact that the track surface had a lot of rain on it, the different teams were bringing their cars in and out of the pit at a high frequency during their runs. However, from about one hour and a half into the session the rain grew stronger, which led to the session being cut short 30 minutes before scheduled at exactly 11:00. At that time, the top time in the GT500 class became the 1’50.092 recorded by the No. 90 GR Supra, and the top time in the GT300 class became the time of 2’1.039 recorded by Takashi Kogure in the No. 88 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure / Daniil Kvyat / Natsu Sakaguchi). What’s more, there were still 10 cars in the GT300 class that had not yet begun their runs.
In the afternoon session that followed, because the morning session had ended 30 minutes before the scheduled time, it was started 30 minutes before schedule at 12:30. Since a lot of rain fell in the early stages, many teams did not send their cars out on the track, and because the rain grew somewhat lighter in the latter half of the session, the number of machines taking to the track gradually increased.
At 14:23, about 30 minutes after the session started, the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN HRC PRELUDE-GT ran off the track at the 2nd corner and came to a stop in the gravel. This brought out the Red Flag to stop the tests for the first time on this day. After the session was restarted, due to a large amount of gravel and grass on the track at the S-curve, the Red Flag was shown for the second time this day, and at 14:23 the No. 88 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 ran off the track at the last corner. And because it then got stuck in the gravel, the third Red Flag of the day was shown.
The fourth development test was run in difficult conditions with a lot of rain, but there were no crashes, so the afternoon session was finished as scheduled exactly at 15:00. The top time in the GT500 class was the 1’50.475 recorded by the No. 23 MOTUL Niterra Z, followed by the No. 19 WedsSport BANDOH GR Supra in 2nd place and the No. 90 GR Supra in 3rd place. In this session the No. 230 Z NISMO was driven by Hiramine and Natori in succession, while the No. 90 GR Supra was apparently driven by Nirei Fukuzumi, and the No. 99 HRC PRELUDE-GT by Igor Omura Fraga and Yuto Nomura.
In the GT300 class the top time of 1’58.347 was recorded by the No. 777 D’station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii), while the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka) took 2nd place and the No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI (Yoshiaki Katayama / Niklas Krütten) took 3rd place, while the No 3 FIA-GT3 finished out the top three, and following in 4th place came the GTA-GT300 specification No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R＆D SPORT.
○Hiroaki Ishiura（No.32 ENEOS X PRIME AMG GT3）
“This was my first time driving in the GT300 class on DUNLOP tires. Since we haven’t participated in the development tests until now, it would have been best if we could have run the tests here with dry-use tires, but as for tests on wet-use tires we usually had them supply us with two standard-spec sets of low-temperature range tires. As for the feeling I got when driving, because there was a lot of rain, in addition to a feeling of aquaplaning, I felt driving this way was difficult for me. In recent years in SUPER GT there are few chances to race when there is a lot of rain. In that sense, working with the same perspective as in the GT500 class, I felt that these were tires that I could run well with in damp conditions. Since it was possible to warm up the tires in the first lap out on the track, I felt that it would be possible to run safely in a race. However, with regard to how they stood as a good match for the GR GT3 concept car, because we are still struggling to work on the car settings, to be honest I would have to say that we are in a difficult position.”
○Kazuto Kotaka（No.31 apr LC500h GT）
“This was my first time driving the apr LC500h GT on DUNLOP wet-use tires, I felt that they don’t fit well using the setting that we are used to until now. I felt that if we made adjustments to fit the tires we could get good performance from them, but with our present setup I think the tires will be difficult to get good performance from. So, I guess my feeling is that we have to take a good look at the settings (toward next season).”
○Hibiki Taira（No.30 apr GR86 GT）
“Seeing that this was our first time running on the wet-use tires, we started out by searching for the best internal pressure. Since things were difficult working with the aquaplaning effect, as we worked on gradually adjusting the internal pressure, we were able to make improvements. At first, because of course there was a large amount of rain, I felt that there was also the effect of the circuit’s new asphalt. After making improvements, I found that we got a good feeling of grip in the longitudinal direction, so I feel that it was a successful test.”
○Takamitsu Matsui（No.25 HOPPY Schatz GR Supra GT）
“Even though the temperature was low, I felt that I was able to run fairly well. That said, however, I felt that there was some difference in the way the tires performed with the FIA-GT3 and GTA-GT300 speculation cars we have. Also, I am concerned about how the tires will perform in summer heat, but since we were able to run well in these low-temperature conditions, that fact gives us some assurance. I also think that since next season we will only have one-make of tires, I think there will probably be a difference between the different drivers and teams, and I also think that will bring a new aspect of interest to the races. Since there will also be an increasing number to battles to wage, I am looking forward to next season’s tires.”
○Yusuke Shiotsu（No.5 MACHSYAKEN AIR BUSTER MC86 MACH GO）
“In addition to the fact that the temperature was quite low, since our car has the Mother Chassis specification – meaning it’s relatively lightweight -, there was some difficulty in getting the tires to warm up. Since we weren’t able to run very well (on this wet track surface), at this point it was difficult to find many positive aspects. For that reason, I believe that it will be the job of finding a good match between the car and the tires for the team and for us (drivers).”
Naoya Kubo Assistant Manager Motorsports Dept. Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd
“For this test session, while we at Dunlop determined which sets of tires to supply, we left the decisions regarding the running program entirely up to the team. As for wet-weather tires, we brought two different specifications: one designed to perform well across the range of temperatures typically encountered throughout the season, and another tailored for conditions at the lower end of the temperature spectrum—like those experienced this time. Ultimately, the wet-weather tire intended for general, season-long use delivered better grip than we had anticipated. While some aspects differed slightly from our expectations, Mobility Resort Motegi maintains a high friction coefficient for the track surface even in wet conditions, which likely played a role. At the same time, it was encouraging to confirm that the tire specification intended for year-round use provided sufficient grip for racing, even in the low-temperature conditions we encountered this time. The drivers provided feedback that there was little difference between the specifications we brought for low-temperature conditions and those intended for year-round use; furthermore, they noted that the overall performance – including drivability – was good. Ideally, since most of the GT300-class entrants participated this time, we would have liked to get some solid running in under dry conditions. As for dry tires, we have already conducted tests, so we have no choice but to evaluate their performance based on those result. On the other hand, regarding wet tires – for which we have had few testing opportunities – it was beneficial to be able to evaluate them this time around. Since the wet tires are still in the development phase, we plan to finalize their specifications by incorporating data such as lap times and rainfall levels from this session, alongside feedback from the drivers.”
