Three Points, Two Races, One Crown: Super GT's Motegi Finale Is This Weekend

The 2026 Super GT GT500 title comes down to a Motegi doubleheader: TOM'S GR Supra (61 points) vs STANLEY Prelude-GT (58), 42 points available, Friday practice done, a public argument over a no-tire-change gamble, and Tsuboi chasing a record fifth title.
By JDMuscle
4 min read
Super GT GT500 action at Mobility Resort Motegi, official Toyota photo via Sportscar365

Three points decide the 2026 Super GT GT500 championship this weekend at Mobility Resort Motegi — and unusually, the title is settled over two full races, not one. The No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra of Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita leads on 61 points, the No. 100 STANLEY HRC Prelude-GT of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino sits on 58, and with 42 points still available across Saturday's Round 3 and Sunday's Round 8 Grand Final, the three-point gap is a lead in name only.

Why the Finale Is a Doubleheader

This year's Malaysian round at Sepang was cancelled, and Super GT moved the lost race to Motegi — so the postponed Round 3 runs on Saturday, November 7, and the Round 8 Grand Final follows on Sunday, November 8. Each race is 250 km (53 laps) with a 14:00 local start, its own morning qualifying session, and its own full points: 20 for the win plus one for pole, per race. The handicap rules twist the knife further. Saturday runs at reduced success handicaps — one kilogram of success weight per point scored, plus a stage-one fuel restrictor for both leading cars — while on Sunday the weight and restrictors come off entirely, and the championship is decided in a straight fight.

Toyota GR GT3 testing at Fuji Speedway, official Toyota photo — the car makes its race debut at Motegi this weekend

Friday Practice Set the Tone: Nobody Is Hiding

The cars ran their only practice session today, Friday, and it told the expected story under the handicaps: the Dunlop-shod Nakajima Racing Honda of Riki Okusa was fastest, narrowly ahead of the Rookie Racing Toyota of Nirei Fukuzumi, with the two title cars buried in the midfield — the No. 100 in 11th and the No. 36 in 12th. Tsuboi told Sportscar365 he does not read much into it: the leaders' lap times were very similar, their long-run pace looks good, and Saturday morning's qualifying will run in colder conditions than today's session anyway. His one stated target was simple — qualify ahead of the No. 100 car.

The Storyline Inside the Race: One Stop, No Tire Change?

Motegi has been fully resurfaced since last year's race, and at 250 km instead of the traditional 300 km, tire degradation should be lower — which reopens a gambit Makino and Yamamoto themselves used at Motegi last year: make the single mandatory stop, change drivers, and do not change tires. Tsuboi has said publicly that some teams will try it and that his crew has to consider it. Makino, notably, pushed back in the same reporting: degradation on the new surface felt higher to him, the cold forecast temperatures work against the plan, and he called a no-change run impossible for his side. Both cannot be right, and the first stint on Saturday will show everyone's hand.

What Is Actually at Stake

Tsuboi already owns four GT500 titles, level with Ronnie Quintarelli for the most in the class; a fifth makes the record his alone, and a fourth in a row. The TOM'S car has also won at Motegi in each of the last three years. Against that stands momentum: Honda's new Prelude-GT — the car that replaced the Civic Type R-GT this season — has won the last four rounds in a row, including Autopolis in October with this same No. 100 crew, and Yamamoto and Makino have closed out a season together before, as 2020 champions. Behind them, the No. 17 Astemo Prelude-GT (45 points) and the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra (43) need a chaotic weekend to matter. Nissan's GT500 season is the subplot nobody in Yokohama wanted: the Z has not won in 2026, its best results a pair of thirds for the No. 23 car — while in GT300 the No. 56 Realize GT-R leads its class into the weekend. Toyota's new GR GT3 also makes its points-invisible race debut in GT300, a story we covered in full in our GR GT3 debut guide. And Sunday is also the end of an era: the last weekend of Super GT's tire war before each class moves to a single supplier.

JDMuscle V1 carbon fiber duck bill on a GR Supra road car — the production silhouette behind the GT500 championship leader

How to Follow It

Qualifying runs on the morning of each race, with both races starting at 14:00 local time in Japan on Saturday and Sunday. If you follow one Japanese series weekend this year, make it this one: a record chase, a three-point gap, two different rulebooks on consecutive days, and a tire gamble the two title camps are publicly arguing about before a wheel has turned in anger. The road car at the centre of it is in our GR Supra modification guide — the GT500 car is a silhouette racer, but the nameplate fight between Supra and Honda's Prelude-GT is as real as it gets.