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2024 Super GT Series

The 2024 Autobacs Super GT Series was a motor racing championship based in Japan for grand touring cars. The series sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and run by the GT Association (GTA). It was the thirty-second season of the JAF Super GT Championship, which includes the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship era, and the twentieth season under the Super GT name. It is also the forty-second overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Endurance/Sports Prototype Championship.

TGR Team au TOM'S and driver Sho Tsuboi entered the season as the defending champions of the GT500 class. Saitama Green Brave, formerly known as Saitama Toyopet Green Brave, and driver Hiroki Yoshida entered as the defending GT300 class champions.

This was the final season for four-time GT500 champion, Ronnie Quintarelli, who announced his retirement at the end of the season.

TGR Team au TOM'S won the championship in the GT500 class for a consecutive year, with Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita won the Drivers' Championship. In the GT300 class, JLOC, Takashi Kogure and Yuya Motojima won the Teams' and Drivers' Championship which were their first maiden title in the series.

Calendar

A confirmed eight round provisional 2024 calendar was announced on 3 August 2023. On 3 October 2023, it was announced that the seventh round at Autopolis would be moved back two weeks to 19–20 October, in order to eliminate a clash of dates with the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix.

On 29 February 2024, distances for all rounds were confirmed. The Golden Week race at Fuji Speedway, the Spring race at Suzuka Circuit, and the penultimate race at Autopolis will be three-hour timed races, the first championship races to be run to a timed format. The Summer races at Fuji and Suzuka will be 350 kilometres long. On 28 August 2024, it was announced that the 2nd Suzuka round was postponed to 7–8 December due to the threat of Typhoon Shanshan, followed by an 21 October 2024 announcement the race will be reduced from 61 laps (350 km) to 52 laps (300 km)with an earlier (12.40) start featuring a time certain finish of 15.30 if the 52 laps cannot be completed by then.

Regulation changes

The GTA confirmed several changes for the 2024 Super GT season.

Aggregate qualifying format

Super GT introduced a new aggregate qualifying system on 9 February, replacing the knockout format which had been used since 2013.

  • Under the new format, the grids in GT500 and GT300 will be determined by the combined Q1 and Q2 times of each team's two nominated drivers.
  • Each team is only allowed to use one set of tyres throughout Q1 and Q2, and must start the race on the same set of tyres.
  • Teams that don't participate in qualifying, fail to set a time in both qualifying sessions, or fail to meet the 107% minimum time after Q2 will have to start the race from the pits.
  • Points will now be awarded to the top three qualifiers in each class. The pole-winning team and drivers now earn three points, while second place earns two points and third place earns one point.
  • Pole position will be credited to both drivers on the pole-winning team that run in qualifying.

On 12 March, a follow-up bulletin would detail the changes made to GT300 qualifying:

  • Similar to recent years, the GT300 field would be split into two groups for Q1 based on the most recent Teams' Championship standings, with odd number-ranked teams in Group A and even number-ranked teams in Group B. A pre-event lottery would determine which group goes first in Q1.
  • After both Q1 groups have run, the cars would be regrouped for Q2. The top eight cars in each Q1 group will go into Q2 Group 1, and the cars that finished outside the top eight in each group would go into Q2 Group 2.
  • Once Group 2 and Group 1 have run, the final grid order will be determined based on these final groupings:
  • Positions 1-12: Top 12 combined times in Q2 Group 1.
  • Positions 13-20: Combined times of the top four in Q2 Group 2 and bottom four in Q2 Group 1.
  • Positions 21-27: Combined times of the remaining cars that finished fifth or lower in Q2 Group 2.
  • In the event of rain, the GT300 grid will be determined from Q2 times only.

Other changes

Beginning in 2024, GT300 teams will use 50 percent renewable carbon-neutral synthetic fuel supplied by ETS Racing Fuels.

Teams will only be allocated four sets of dry tyres for 300 kilometre races, down from five sets in 2023. Five sets of dry tyres will be available for 350 km events, and six sets of tyres will be available in three-hour timed events.

GT300 success ballast has been reduced to a maximum of 100 kilogrammes to just 80 kg. GT300 teams will now receive two kilogrammes of Success Weight per drivers' championship point scored from rounds one through six. There is a limit of 50 points (100 kg).

To reduce cornering speeds, the GTA implemented new technical directives in both class. In GT500, the minimum ride height has been raised by 5 millimetres by increasing the thickness of the skid block. In GT300, all cars will carry a predetermined amount of additional ballast weight, between 33 and 52 kg. This additional weight is distinct from the weight assigned to each car as part of the balance of performance.

Teams and drivers

GT500

GT300

Vehicle changes

GT500

GT300

  • Team LeMans entered a new Ferrari 296 GT3, replacing its previous Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II which had raced for three seasons.
  • GAINER developed a new version of the Nissan Fairlady Z built to the GTA-GT300 vehicle regulations, replacing the number 11 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 that had raced since 2018. The car was revealed ahead of the opening round at Okayama and made its race debut at the Fuji 3 Hours.
  • The former number 10 GAINER Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 was replaced by the number 45 Ferrari 296 GT3 entered by PONOS Racing. (see Entrant changes below).

Entrant changes

GT500

  • Toyota announced its driver line-ups on 12 December 2023.
  • Three-time GT500 champion Yuji Tachikawa retired from driving after the 2023 season and became the team director at Cerumo for the second time. Former Honda driver Toshiki Oyu moved to Cerumo. Car care company KeePer, which previously served as the main sponsor for the TOM'S number 37 car, replaced long time sponsor ZENT as the title sponsor of Team Cerumo.
  • Reigning GT500 champion Ritomo Miyata left the series after the 2023 season to compete overseas in Formula 2 and the European Le Mans Series. 2019 GT500 champion Kenta Yamashita joined reigning champion team au TOM'S to fill the seat vacated by Miyata. TOM'S elected not to use the GT500 champion's number "1" in 2024. Two-time GT500 Champion Michael Krumm became the new team director of the number 37 Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra. Jun Yamada was promoted to the role of general manager overseeing both TOM'S cars.
  • Nirei Fukuzumi also followed Oyu move to Toyota from Honda as he moved to Rookie Racing replacing au TOM'S-bound Kenta Yamashita.
  • Honda announced its driver line-ups on 12 December 2023.
  • To replace the Toyota-bound Fukuzumi and Oyu, both Nobuharu Matsushita and Ren Sato joined ARTA. Matsushita, who spent the last two seasons with Astemo Real Racing, partner up alongside Tomoki Nojiri in the number 8 car. Sato, who drove for ARTA's GT300 team in 2021, made his GT500 debut alongside Hiroki Otsu in the number 16 car.
  • Kakunoshin Ohta replaced Matsushita at Real Racing, alongside Koudai Tsukakoshi who returns for his 16th full season with the team.
  • Riki Okusa who raced with GAINER in GT300, made his GT500 debut with Nakajima Racing replacing Ohta.
  • Team Kunimitsu saw its main sponsor Stanley take on a bigger role in the team as the title sponsor, with the team competing under the name "Stanley Team Kunimitsu".
  • Nissan announced its driver line-ups on 18 January 2024.
  • Both NISMO teams changed tyre suppliers to Bridgestone following Michelin's withdrawal from the GT500 class after the 2023 season. Tsugio Matsuda leaves the number 23 NISMO car. This marked the end of Matsuda and Quintarelli's partnership which lasted for 11 years. last year's runner-up Katsumasa Chiyo replaced Matsuda. While the number 3 car rebranded to "NISMO NDDP" entry, former Max Racing GT300 driver Atsushi Miyake replaced Chiyo.
  • Kondo Racing have a new line up as Daiki Sasaki and Kohei Hirate were dropped from Nissan's GT500 line-ups, with Sasaki stayed with Kondo Racing and Hirate to the new entry of HELM Motorsports. Two-time GT500 champion Tsugio Matsuda and Teppei Natori promoted from the team's GT300 setup.

GT300

Mid-season changes

GT300

Results

Championship standings

Drivers' championships

Race points
Qualifying points

GT500

GT300

Teams' championships

Race points

GT500

GT300

Notes

References

External links