Super GT: Okayama roundup

Super GT opened its 2026 season at Okayama on April 12 with Toyota winning GT500, Honda getting all five Prelude-GT entries to the finish, and several smaller programs leaving with cleaner weekends than their results alone suggest. (supergt.net, racer.com) Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita won the 300-kilometer GT500 race in the No. 36 Toyota GR Supra for TOM’S, beating the No. 38 Cerumo Toyota of Toshiki Oyu and rookie Rikuto Kobayashi by 19.602 seconds. Team Impul’s No. 12 Nissan, driven by Kazuki Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette, finished third. (racer.com, supergt.net) Okayama is a short 300-kilometer opener, so finishing cleanly matters as much as outright speed for teams still sorting new cars, new lineups, or both. Honda arrived with a new GT500 model, the Honda HRC Prelude-GT, and its best qualifier, the No. 17 Astemo car, started fourth. (supergt.net, honda.racing) That made Sunday a useful first read on Honda’s new package: RACER reported the top Honda, the No. 16 ARTA Mugen HRC Prelude-GT of Tomoki Nojiri and Ren Sato, finished sixth, and no Honda entry dropped out. For a debut race with five cars on track, that is a solid baseline before the field heads to a longer race at Fuji. (racer.com, supergt.net) The same logic applies in GT300, where points are often shaped by survival as much as pace in the opener. D’station Racing’s No. 777 Aston Martin won from pole, while the No. 31 apr Lexus of Kazuto Kotaka and Miki Koyama finished third, making Koyama the third woman to score a Super GT podium. (racer.com, supergt.net) For teams deeper in the GT300 order, the weekend was more about execution than trophies. Pacific Racing said its No. 23 car came home 23rd after difficult pit timing, while the team highlighted strong stints from rookie Yuto Nomura and Igor Omura Fraga. (x.com, pacific-racing.jp) Nomura’s name stood out before Okayama for another reason: he is also starting a 2026 Super Formula campaign after winning the 2025 Super Formula Lights title. Super Formula’s official site lists him as a 2005-born driver, and outside reporting has described him as one of the youngest moves into Super GT’s top class this year. (superformula.net, dive-bomb.com) SHADE RACING’s No. 20 also drew notice simply by completing the full race distance, an important first marker for a team trying to build momentum across a long eight-round season. In a category as crowded as GT300, finishing every lap at Okayama can matter more in April than a single risky result. (x.com, supergt.net) The next stop is Fuji Speedway on May 3 and May 4, the first of Super GT’s two three-hour races in 2026. That weekend should give a clearer read on whether Toyota’s early GT500 control holds, whether Honda’s new Prelude-GT can turn clean finishes into podium pace, and whether midfield GT300 teams can convert steady runs into points. (supergt.net, racer.com)