【1st Tire Test for 2027】 SUPER GT Tire Test conducted with 14 cars participating on the day after the Round 4 race at Fuji Speedway. Tire development for 2027 already gets underway.

Yesterday was August 3rd (Mon.), just one day after the running of the 2026 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 4 race, the “FUJI GT 300km RACE”. At the same Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture, three GT500 cars and 11 GT300 cars, totally 14 cars, participated in tests for next season’s tire tests. As announced on August 2nd (Sun), from the SUPER GT 2027 season, Bridgestone will serve as the Official Tire Supplier for the GT500 class and Dunlop will be the Official Tire Supplier for the GT300 class. And from this day, tire development has already begun for the coming season.

◎First Test Run: 10:00 – 12:00　Weather: cloudy / Track surface: dry
◎Second Test Run:　14:00 – 16:00　 Weather: cloudy / Track surface: dry

　At the start of yesterday’s Round 4 final race the air temperature was 32℃, typical of mid-summer heat, but this day the skies were cloudy all day long and the air temperature didn’t reach even 30℃. So, the tests were run in conditions approached what could be considered coolness.

　From the GT500 class’s 14 cars that competed in the 2026 season, only three development-purpose cars participated in the tests, including the TGR-D No. 90 GR Supra GT500, the HRC No. 99 HRC PRELUDE-GT and the No. 230 Z NISMO GT500. These three cars participated in the development tests using the tires supplied by Bridgestone, the GT500 class’s designated Official Tire Supplier for the 2027 season.

　In the first test session that began at 10:00 in the morning, it was driver Sho Tsuboi who drove the No. 90 GR Supra. In the No. 99 HRC Prelude-GT it was Tadasuke Makino and Hiroki Otsu who did the driving. While the No. 230 Z NISMO GT500 was driven by Katsumasa Chiyo.
　In the second test session that began at 2:00 in the afternoon, the No. 90 GR Supra was driven by Kenta Yamashita, while the No. 99 HRC PRELUDE-GT was driven by the same drivers as in the morning session, Makino and Otsu. As for the No. 230 Z NISMO GT500 car, the first driver was Choyo, and later the driver was changed to Mitsunori Takaboshi. Although the details of the development menus were not made clear, the three cars that had participated in the preceding first and second sessions ran a menu that consisted of a series of short runs followed by pit stops.
　In the morning’s first test session, all three cars had recorded best times in the 1’29 sec. range, In the second session in the afternoon, the No. 230 Z NISMO GT500 was the only car to run a best time in the 1’29 sec. range. As for the No. 90 GR Supra and the No. 99 HRC PRELUDE-GT, their best times were in the 1’30 sec. range.

　As for the 11 cars of the GT300 class, four cars, including the No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa LC500 GT, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG and the No. 666 seven x seven PORSCHE GT3R EVO ran tests this time aimed at 2027 season use as decided by Dunlop, the designated Official Tire Supplier for this class for the 2027 season.

　As for the seven other cars, the teams that chose to run tests participated by running test menus of their own choosing using this season’s makers’ tires, while the Dunlop engineers monitored the proceedings.

　Also, in addition to the teams ‘regular drivers, there were a number of the team’s third drivers registered and driving, including the No. 666 seven x seven PORSCHE GT3R EVO （Sven Muller/Kiyoto Fujinami） third driver Taichi Watarai, the No. 31 apr LC500h GT’s （Kazuto Kotaka/Miki Koyama） Charlie Wurz, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG’s （Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami） Haruki Kurosawa, the No. 9 PACIFIC UMA MUSUME NAC BMW’s （Yusuke Tomibayashi/Yuta Fujiwara） Rintaro Kubo, and the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT’s （Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi） Shunji Okumoto. The No. 62 HELM MOTORSPORTS GT-R is being driven by regular drivers Yuya Hiraki and Reiji Hiraki, alongside Kazuki Hiramine—who drove the GT500-class No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z in Round 4.

　While all the cars ran their test menus in earnest, among the cars running in the first test session, it was the No. 61 BRZ recorded the top time of 1’37.652. As for the second fastest time, it was recorded by the No. 62 GT-R, and the third fastest time went to the No. 30 GR86.
　Also, in the second test session, where it was assigned to run the development menu, the Top Time went to the No. 666 PORSCHE, with a time of 1’37.371. As with the first test session, it was the No. 62 GT-R that recorded the second fastest time, while third fastest went to the No. 30 GR86.