2021.01.22

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Announces its GT500 program: The 2019 Champion pair return to drive car No. 14! TOM’S to enter with driver pairs Sekiguchi/Tsuboi and Hirakawa/Fenestraz

　On January 22, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) announced the makeup of its affiliated teams and their drivers to be participating in the GT500 class of the 2021 SUPER GT series.

 

　Again this year, with the support of TOYOTA CUSTOMIZING & DEVELOPMENT Co., Ltd (TCD), six Toyota GR Supra GT500 cars will be participating ln the SUPER GT series. As stated in the announcement release, this season’s goal is for the “drivers and teams to work together to reclaim the series championship title.

　As for the team makeups and drivers, the No. 14 car that appeared last season has a new sponsoring partner and thus a new team name of TGR TEAM ENEOS ROOKIE, while the car name is the ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra. This marks the return of the ENEOS brand name for the first time since the 2015 season. The first driver will again be Kazuya Oshima, and this season he will team newly with Kenta Yamashita. Last year, Yamashita was active primarily in WEC, and of his three spot entries in the GT500 class, he won pole position in the final round of the 2020 series, thus proving his speed. This driver pair that won the 2019 series Drivers title will be back together this season attempting to recover the title.
　Standing together again this season as the driver pair for car No. 19 of TGR TEAM WedsSport BANDOH will be Yuji Kunimoto and Ritomo Miyata. With a record of 3rd-place in the Qualifying at two rounds last season, they will try to make that speed tell in the races and secure a top position on the podium for a first win.

　TEAM TOM'S will enter two teams in the GT500 class again this season. The No. 36 car of TGR TEAM au TOM'S will once again field Yuhi Sekiguchi as its ace driver. His new teammate this season will be Sho Tsuboi, who distinguished himself last season driving car No. 14. The 25-year-old Tsuboi is certainly a rising presence in GT racing. This new driver pair with their proud reputation for speed will be trying to win the No. 36 team its first championship title since 2009.
　As for car No. 37’s team that just fell short of winning last season’s championship with the goal in sight in the last round, they will be seeking redemption with a driver team of last season’s ace driver Ryo Hirakawa and a strong new addition in Sacha Fenestraz. In his GT500 rookie season last year, the young 21-year-old Fenestraz performed brilliantly driving car No. 36. Knowing each other as fellow TOM’S drivers, this new pair will certainly be viable title contenders.

　Car No. 38 of TGR TEAM ZENT CERUMO will field the proven pair of Yuji Tachikawa and Hiroaki Ishiura for the seventh straight season. Ishiura will be devoting all his efforts to bring the team their first GT500 title with strong driving as he did last year. As for Tachikawa, he will seek to add to his title win with the previous Supra by adding another with the new GR Supra. Certainly, this veteran pair will be ones to watch again this season.
　The drivers for car No. 39 of TGR TEAM SARD will also be the same as last year, with Heikki Kovalainen and Yuichi Nakayama. This driver pair enters its third season, which won races both last year and the year before, will be looking to take their second championship title since the one they won in the 2016 season.
　Also note that all six teams will run on tires by the same makers as last year. In the TGR program announcement this time, the names of the respective team managers were not announced.

 

GT500
No.	Team	Machine	Driver	Tire
14	TGR TEAM ENEOS ROOKIE	ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra	Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita	BS
19	TGR TEAM WedsSport BANDOH	WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra	Yuji Kunimoto Ritomo Miyata	YH
36	TGR TEAM au TOM'S	au TOM'S GR Supra	Yuhi Sekiguchi Sho Tsuboi	BS
37	TGR TEAM KeePer TOM'S	KeePer TOM'S GR Supra	Ryo Hirakawa Sacha Fenestraz	BS
38	TGR TEAM ZENT CERUMO	ZENT CERUMO GR Supra	Yuji Tachikawa Hiroaki Ishiura	BS
39	TGR TEAM SARD	DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra	Heikki Kovalainen Yuichi Nakayama	BS

 

 

　For 2021, there will be three GR Supra GT and two LEXUS RC F GT cars competing in the GT300 class. Of them, the makeup of the No. 35 team will be announced at a later date.
　The apr team will again be entering two Toyota Prius PHV cars, with car No. 30 driven by Hiroaki Nagai and Manabu Orido and the No. 31 car driven by Koki Saga and Yuki Nakayama, and once again they will be competing on Bridgestone tires. The No. 52 team that emerged to win two rounds last season will again enter a GR Supra driven by the same pair of Hiroki Yoshida and Kohta Kawaai.
　The No. 60 team will also enter with the same drivers as last year in Hiroki Yoshimoto and Shunsuke Kohno, but this year their car with be the GR Supra GT and their tires supplied by Dunlop. Like last year, the No. 96 team fields the same drivers in Morio Nitta and Sena Sakaguchi, again in a RC F GT3. Now in its second year, the No. 244 team will enter with a GR Supra GT driven by Atsushi Miyake and Yuui Tsutsumi.

 

GT300
No.	Team	Machine	Driver	Tire
30	apr	TOYOTA GR SPORT PRIUS PHV apr GT	Hiroaki Nagai Manabu Orido	YH
31	apr	TOYOTA GR SPORT PRIUS PHV apr GT	Koki Saga Yuhki Nakayama	BS
35	TBN	TBN	TBN TBN	YH
52	Saitama Toyopet Green Brave	SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT	Hiroki Yoshida Kohta Kawaai	BS
60	LM corsa	SYNTIUM LMcorsa GR Supra GT	Hiroki Yoshimoto Shunsuke Kohno	DL
96	K-tunes Racing	K-tunes RC F GT3	Morio Nitta Sena Sakaguchi	DL
244	Max Racing	Takanoko-no-yu GR Supra GT	Atsushi Miyake Yuui Tsutsumi	YH

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