2019 Super GT Series

Calendar

Round	Race	Circuit	Date
1	Okayama GT 300 km	Okayama International Circuit	April 13–14
2	Fuji GT 500 km	Fuji Speedway	May 3–4
3	Suzuka GT 300 km	Suzuka Circuit	May 25–26
4	Chang Super GT Race 300 km	Chang International Circuit	June 29–30
5	Fuji GT 500 miles	Fuji Speedway	August 3–4
6	Autopolis GT 300 km	Autopolis	September 7–8
7	Sugo GT 300 km	Sportsland SUGO	September 21–22
8	Motegi GT 250 km	Twin Ring Motegi	November 2–3
NC	Super GT × DTM Dream Race	Fuji Speedway	November 23–24
NC	auto sport Web Sprint Cup	Fuji Speedway	November 23–24

Calendar changes

• In light of the series' partnership with the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, two races will be made featuring both cars, the first will be the DTM season finale at Hockenheimring, where some Super GT cars were invited to race, the second will be the Super GT x DTM Dream Race, a non-championship joint race featuring Super GT's GT500 cars and the DTM's competitors, will be held at Fuji after the end of the season. A balance of performance formula will be applied to ensure parity between DTM cars and Super GT as Super GT will not adopt Class One regulations until 2020.
• The auto sport Web Sprint Cup, a non-championship race for GT300 competitors, will also be held at Fuji as a supporting event of the Super GT x DTM Dream Race.
• The Autopolis GT 300km Race moved forward in the calendar to September 8, and will be the sixth round of the season. The Sugo round now becomes the penultimate round of the season.
• The final round at Motegi has been moved forward a week to avoid a clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship and Super Taikyu Series.

  Teams and drivers

GT500

GT300

Driver Changes

Entering Super GT

• Blancpain GT Series Asia Silver Cup champion Marchy Lee, Shaun Thong, and Shinya Michimi will make their Super GT debut with X Works. Thong will contest the full season, while Lee will participate in the first five races. Michimi takes over for the remaining rounds of the season, and also is entered as a third driver at both of the Fuji races.
• FIA Formula 3 European Championship driver Álex Palou will make his Super GT debut for McLaren Customer Racing Japan.
• Narain Karthikeyan will make his Super GT debut for Nakajima Racing. Karthikeyan previously drove for Nakajima's Super Formula team in 2018.
• Nirei Fukuzumi will make his Super GT debut for ARTA's GT300 team, replacing Sean Walkinshaw.
• Former Renault Sport Academy prospect Sacha Fenestraz will make his Super GT debut with Kondo Racing in the GT300 category.

  Returning to Super GT

• Seiji Ara will return to the series after a one-year absence from the series following Studie's withdrawal in 2018. He is expected to drive full-time for McLaren Customer Racing Japan.
• Tadasuke Makino will return to the series after a two-year absence from the series. Makino will enter his first full-season campaign with Nakajima Racing after having previously competed with Drago Corse in the last three races of the 2016 season.
• Manabu Orido, who returned mid-season in 2018 to replace Kota Sasaki in apr's #30 team, will return to full-time driving duties with apr in the #30 Prius.
• 2015 GT300 Champion André Couto returns to the series after a two-year absence, driving the number 87 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 for Team JLOC.

  Team Transfers

• Hiroki Yoshida moves from Gainer to Saitama Toyopet Green Brave.
• Both Bertrand Baguette and Kosuke Matsuura left Nakajima Racing to join Real Racing and Team UpGarage, respectively.
• Series veteran João Paulo de Oliveira left Kondo Racing, ending his thirteen-year association with Nissan. He moves to D'Station Racing for the 2019 season.
• 2010 GT500 Champion Takashi Kogure moved to the GT300 class to drive for Team JLOC, months after it was confirmed he would not race for Honda after fifteen years as a factory Honda driver.
• Kohei Hirate returns to the GT500 class, moving from apr to NDDP by B-Max Racing. In doing so, Hirate defects to Nissan after a seventeen-year association with Toyota.
• James Rossiter returns as a full-time driver in the GT500 class, now racing for Impul after running as a reserve driver in the 2018 season for Lexus when Kazuki Nakajima and Felix Rosenqvist were unable to race due to scheduling conflicts.
• With Team UpGarage switching from Toyota MC to Honda GT3 machinery, Yuhki Nakayama will move from Team UpGarage to apr, replacing Kohei Hirate.

  Leaving Super GT

• In February, three-time GT500 Champion Satoshi Motoyama announced his retirement from top-class racing, after twenty-three seasons driving for Nissan - twenty-two of them spent in the GT500 class.
• Felix Rosenqvist left Super GT after joining the NTT IndyCar Series with Chip Ganassi Racing.
• Kamui Kobayashi will leave Super GT in order to focus on competing in the WEC.
• Katsumasa Chiyo left Super GT to drive for Nissan and KCMG in the SRO Intercontinental GT Challenge. Chiyo would return in a one-off appearance for Team Impul, replacing James Rossiter, who was declared unfit to race on the morning of the Autopolis round.

  Team Changes

GT500

• Modulo returns to the GT500 class after they signed a deal with Nakajima Racing to become their new primary sponsor, replacing long-time sponsor Epson.

  GT300

• Kondo Racing will expand their operations by fielding a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 in the GT300 class.
• X Works, a Hong Kong-based racing team, make their Super GT debut using a 2018 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 and fielding a full Hong Kong driver line-up for their debut season, running as Neon Genesis Evangelion Unit-01.
• Team Taisan, EIcars Bentley, and CarGuy Racing all withdrew from Super GT at the end of the 2018 season. Team Taisan will instead focus on EV racing, while CarGuy Racing will concentrate on the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Asian Le Mans Series.
• On December 21, it was officially announced that virtual YouTuber will become the new primary sponsor for Pacific Racing, replacing Gulf Oil, which had sponsored Pacific since 2016.
• Team Goh, competing as McLaren Customer Racing Japan, returns to Super GT after a 23-year absence, fielding a McLaren 720S GT3. They had previously competed in Super GT in the JGTC era as Team Lark, winning the GT500 title in 1996 with the McLaren F1 GTR, the only time in the series history where a non-Japanese manufacturer won the GT500 class.
• Both Team UpGarage and ARTA's GT300 team will make a switch from the Dome-built Toyota 86 MC and BMW M6 GT3 respectively to the Honda NSX GT3.
• apr Racing will enter an all-new, front-engined Toyota Prius, after their old mid-engined Prius was rendered obsolete by regulations requiring GT300 cars' engines to be located in the same position as in their production counterparts.

  Results

Round	Circuit	Date	Class	Pole Position	Race Winner
1	Okayama International Circuit Report	14 April	GT500	No. 23 NISMO	No. 8 ARTA
1	Okayama International Circuit Report	14 April	GT500	Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli	Tomoki Nojiri Takuya Izawa
1	Okayama International Circuit Report	14 April	GT300	No. 55 ARTA	No. 96 K-Tunes LM Corsa
1	Okayama International Circuit Report	14 April	GT300	Shinichi Takagi Nirei Fukuzumi	Morio Nitta Sena Sakaguchi
2	Fuji Speedway Report	4 May	GT500	No. 23 NISMO	No. 38 Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo
2	Fuji Speedway Report	4 May	GT500	Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli	Yuji Tachikawa Hiroaki Ishiura
2	Fuji Speedway Report	4 May	GT300	No. 56 Kondo Racing	No. 11 GAINER
2	Fuji Speedway Report	4 May	GT300	Kazuki Hiramine Sacha Fenestraz	Katsuyuki Hiranaka Hironobu Yasuda
3	Suzuka Circuit Report	26 May	GT500	No. 36 Lexus Team au Tom's	No. 36 Lexus Team au Tom's
3	Suzuka Circuit Report	26 May	GT500	Kazuki Nakajima Yuhi Sekiguchi	Kazuki Nakajima Yuhi Sekiguchi
3	Suzuka Circuit Report	26 May	GT300	No. 25 Tsuchiya Engineering	No. 96 K-Tunes LM Corsa
3	Suzuka Circuit Report	26 May	GT300	Takamitsu Matsui Kimiya Sato	Morio Nitta Sena Sakaguchi
4	Chang International Circuit Report	30 June	GT500	No. 6 Lexus Team LeMans Wako's	No. 6 Lexus Team LeMans Wako's
4	Chang International Circuit Report	30 June	GT500	Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita	Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita
4	Chang International Circuit Report	30 June	GT300	No. 25 Tsuchiya Engineering	No. 10 GAINER
4	Chang International Circuit Report	30 June	GT300	Takamitsu Matsui Kimiya Sato	Kazuki Hoshino Keishi Ishikawa
5	Fuji Speedway Report	4 August	GT500	No. 23 NISMO	No. 6 Lexus Team LeMans Wako's
5	Fuji Speedway Report	4 August	GT500	Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli	Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita
5	Fuji Speedway Report	4 August	GT300	No. 52 Saitama Toyopet Green Brave	No. 87 JLOC
5	Fuji Speedway Report	4 August	GT300	Hiroki Yoshida Shigekazu Wakisaka	Tsubasa Takahashi André Couto Kiyoto Fujinami
6	Autopolis Report	8 September	GT500	No. 17 Keihin Real Racing	No. 39 Lexus Team SARD
6	Autopolis Report	8 September	GT500	Koudai Tsukakoshi Bertrand Baguette	Heikki Kovalainen Yuichi Nakayama
6	Autopolis Report	8 September	GT300	No. 25 Tsuchiya Engineering	No. 60 LM Corsa
6	Autopolis Report	8 September	GT300	Takamitsu Matsui Kimiya Sato	Hiroki Yoshimoto Ritomo Miyata
7	Sportsland SUGO Report	22 September	GT500	No. 17 Keihin Real Racing	No. 3 NDDP Racing with B-Max
7	Sportsland SUGO Report	22 September	GT500	Koudai Tsukakoshi Bertrand Baguette	Frédéric Makowiecki Kohei Hirate
7	Sportsland SUGO Report	22 September	GT300	No. 61 R&D Sport	No. 55 ARTA
7	Sportsland SUGO Report	22 September	GT300	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	Shinichi Takagi Nirei Fukuzumi
8	Twin Ring Motegi Report	3 November	GT500	No. 36 Lexus Team au Tom's	No. 37 Lexus Team KeePer Tom's
8	Twin Ring Motegi Report	3 November	GT500	Kazuki Nakajima Yuhi Sekiguchi	Ryo Hirakawa Nick Cassidy
8	Twin Ring Motegi Report	3 November	GT300	No. 720 McLaren Customer Racing Japan	No. 11 GAINER
8	Twin Ring Motegi Report	3 November	GT300	Seiji Ara Álex Palou	Katsuyuki Hiranaka Hironobu Yasuda
NC	Fuji Speedway Report	23–24 November	Race 1	No. 37 Lexus Team KeePer Tom's	No. 37 Lexus Team KeePer Tom's
NC	Fuji Speedway Report	23–24 November	Race 1	Nick Cassidy	Nick Cassidy
NC	Fuji Speedway Report	23–24 November	Race 2	No. 28 Audi Sport Team Phoenix	No. 64 Modulo Nakajima Racing
NC	Fuji Speedway Report	23–24 November	Race 2	Loïc Duval	Narain Karthikeyan
NC	Fuji Speedway Report	23–24 November	Race 1	No. 60 LM Corsa	No. 60 LM Corsa
NC	Fuji Speedway Report	23–24 November	Race 1	Ritomo Miyata Hiroki Yoshimoto	Ritomo Miyata Hiroki Yoshimoto
NC	Fuji Speedway Report	23–24 November	Race 2	No. 37 BH Auction Bingo Racing	No. 60 LM Corsa
NC	Fuji Speedway Report	23–24 November	Race 2	Ukyo Sasahara Shinji Takei	Ritomo Miyata Hiroki Yoshimoto

Championship Standings

Drivers' championships

GT500

GT300