D’station and Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia commit to GT4 Japan

D’station Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage and Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia’s GR Supra are joining SRO Motorsports Group’s GT4 Japan races at Okayama on August 18-20.

This year’s penultimate Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS round doubles up as the Fanatec Japan Cup finale. However, those races are now solely for GT3 cars following the organiser’s decision to hold two standalone 60-minute GT4 races for the first time in series history.

The list of confirmed GT4 Japan entries includes cars that raced at Fuji in mid-June as well as the GR Supra that won on the opening weekend in Thailand. Silver-Am pairing Haridarma Manoppo and Nonaka Seita will be amongst the favourites again when Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia travels to Japan for another one-off outing.

D’station will also be there competing in both Fanatec GT Asia and GT4 Japan. Team regulars Tatsuya Hoshino and Kenji Hama were Super Taikyu GT4 (ST-Z) class runners up with a Vantage in 2020 and ’21 before switching to the car’s GT8R version two years ago. They will race in GT4’s Am/Am class at Okayama.

“GT4 Japan is a really interesting opportunity for D’station Racing and something we are very eager to support,” said the team’s managing director and GT3 driver Tomonobu Fujii. “Japan doesn’t have a GT4 sprint championship and the jump to GT3 can be quite daunting for some amateur drivers, so we see this event as an important development and showcase for the class.”

The exercise is a precursor to 2024 when GT4 will potentially move from Fanatec GT Asia into a new championship solely based in Japan. Precise details are still being finalised but SRO does expect GT4 to have a greater presence in Japan next year.

“As soon as SRO announced the concept I thought it was a good idea and something that D’station should be involved with,” added Fujii. “I hope other GT4 teams agree, cars enter Okayama and we prove the format has merit.”

Further GT4 entries are currently being finalised. 

This year’s Fanatec GT Asia and Fanatec Japan Cup campaigns continue at Suzuka next weekend (July 14-16).