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Super Taikyu Series

Category	GT3, GT4, TCR, Group N
Country	Japan
Inaugural season	1991
Classes	ST-X, ST-Z, ST-TCR, ST-Q, ST-1, ST-2, ST-3, ST-4, ST-5
Tyre suppliers	Bridgestone
Official website	SuperTaikyu.com
Current season

Super Taikyu (スーパー耐久, Super Endurance), formerly known as the Super N1 Taikyu Series prior to 2005 and N1 Endurance Series prior to 1995, and currently named the Eneos Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone for sponsorship reasons, is a Japanese endurance racing series that began in 1991. In contrast to the Super GT series, Super Taikyu is a pro-am racing series for commercially available racing vehicles such as GT3, GT4, and TCR cars, and minimally-modified production vehicles mainly from the Japanese domestic market.

Super Taikyu races are held across all of Japan's major motor racing circuits, with formats including a single five-hour race, and a double-header format of two three-hour races. The series' largest event is the Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours, which is held annually at Fuji Speedway since its revival in 2018. Prior to that, the Tokachi 24 Hours was the series' largest event, held annually from 1994 until 2008.

In 2022, Eneos became the new title sponsor of the series.

Classes

The series has nine classes of vehicles, ranging from international GT3, GT4, and TCR categories to domestic categories of commercially available cars with effective displacements of under 1,500 cc.

GT3 cars were introduced with the debut of the ST-X class in 2011 (named ST-GT3 from 2012 to 2013). In 2017, the series introduced the ST-Z class for GT4 cars, and the ST-TCR class for TCR touring cars (initially named ST-R for the first round of the 2017 season).

The ST-1, ST-2, ST-3, and ST-4 classes have all existed since the first year of the series in 1991, based on the original Group N regulations and with various displacement and drivetrain layout limits in place. A fifth production class was introduced with the addition of ST-5 in 2010.

ST-Q

In 2021, the ST-Q class was introduced for manufacturer-developed, non-homologated special racing vehicles, similar to Nürburgring Langstrecken Serie's SPX class. Toyota and ROOKIE Racing entered a modified Corolla Sport (GR Corolla) hatchback, equipped with a hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine, in ST-Q beginning in 2021. In the 2021 season finale, Mazda entered a modified version of their Demio (Mazda2) subcompact, powered by biofuel.

In 2022, Toyota and Subaru entered special versions of their GR86 and BRZ sports cars, adapted to run on carbon-neutral synthetic fuel. That same year, Nissan entered a "Racing Concept" version of their new Fairlady Z (RZ34) sports car, which served as the prototype for the Nissan Z GT4. Mazda introduced a new biodiesel concept, the Mazda3 Bio Concept, at the end of 2022.

The hydrogen GR Corolla will adopt the use of liquid hydrogen in 2023 - the first race car in the world to do so. Honda introduced a carbon-neutral fuel compatible version of the Civic Type R in 2023.

Tyres

Yokohama was the series' official tyre supplier until the end of 2017. In 2018, Pirelli became the series' new tyre supplier as part of a three-year contract. In 2021, Hankook became the series' new tyre supplier. Their contract was to last for three years, ending in 2023, with the option to extend the contract through the end of the 2025 season.

Due to the fire at Hankook's manufacturing plant in Daejeon on 12 March 2023, Bridgestone signed a new three-year contract to take over as the tyre supplier of Super Taikyu beginning in 2024. On 24 April, it was announced that Bridgestone would take over as the series' tyre supplier with immediate effect on 24 April, prior to the second round of the 2023 season.

Champions

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (December 2023)

ST-X/GT3 Class (2011–present)

Bold drivers indicate a driver that entered scored every possible point for their respective teams. Drivers listed in italics competed in a select number of rounds for their respective team.

Year	Team	Vehicle	Drivers
2023	Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	Naoya Gamou Tatsuya Kataoka Hibiki Taira Ryūta Ukai
2022	HELM Motorsports	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	Yutaka Toriba Yūya Hiraki Reiji Hiraki Shaun Thong (Rd.2)
2021	D'station Racing	Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3	Satoshi Hoshino [ja] Tomonobu Fujii Tsubasa Kondō [ja]
2020	Mercedes-AMG Team Hirix Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	Daisuke Yamawaki Shaun Thong Shinichi Takagi (Rd. 1–3) Yūki Nemoto (Rd. 1, 4–5)
2019	GTNET Motor Sports (Rd. 1–4, 6)	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	Teruhiko Hamano Kazuki Hoshino Kiyoto Fujinami Kazuki Hiramine (Rd. 3)
2018	GTNET Motor Sports	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	Teruhiko Hamano Kazuki Hoshino Kiyoto Fujinami Hironobu Yasuda (Rd. 3) Sun Zheng (Rd. 3)
2017	ARN Racing	Ferrari 488 GT3	Hiroaki Nagai Kōta Sasaki Tsubasa Mekaru (Rd. 5)
2016	Kondo Racing	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	Yūdai Uchida Tomonobu Fujii Kazuki Hiramine
2015	Endless Sports	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	Yukinori Taniguchi Kyōsuke Mineo [ja] Yūya Motojima [ja]
2014	GTNET Motor Sports (Rd. 2–6)	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	Kazuki Hoshino Naofumi Omoto Takayuki Aoki
2013	Petronas Syntium Team	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	Melvin Moh Nobuteru Taniguchi (Rd. 1-6) Dominic Ang (Rd. 1-4, 6-7)
2012	Petronas Syntium Team	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	Nobuteru Taniguchi Dominic Ang Fariqe Hairuman
2011	Audi Team Hitotsuyama (Rd. 1–3)	Audi R8 LMS GT3	Tomonobu Fujii Akihiro Tsuzuki Michael Kim

ST-Z/GT4 Class (2017–present)

Bold drivers indicate a driver that was entered in every race for their respective team. Drivers listed in italics competed in a select number of rounds for their respective team.

Year	Team	Vehicle	Drivers
2023	Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave	Toyota GR Supra GT4	Naoki Hattori Kohta Kawaai Manabu Yamazaki Hiroki Yoshida Seita Nonaka (Rd. 2)
2022	Team 5Zigen (Rd. 1-6)	Mercedes-AMG GT4	Ryūichirō Otsuka Kakunoshin Ohta Toshihiro Kaneishi Iori Kimura (Rd. 2)
2021	Endless Sports	Mercedes-AMG GT4	Yūdai Uchida Hideki Yamauchi Togo Suganami Ryō Ogawa [ja] (Rd. 1, 3–5)
2020	Endless Sports	Mercedes-AMG GT4	Yūdai Uchida Hideki Yamauchi Tsubasa Takahashi Shinnosuke Yamada (Rd. 1) Ryūichirō Tomita [ja] (Rd. 1) Togo Suganami (Rd. 4-5)
2019	Endless Sports	Mercedes-AMG GT4	Yūdai Uchida Hideki Yamauchi Tsubasa Takahashi Shinnosuke Yamada (Rd. 3)
2018	BEND (Rd. 3, 5)	Porsche Cayman GT4	Masamitsu Ishihara Daisuke Ikeda [ja] Yūya Sakamoto Shinya Hosokawa [ja] (Rd. 3) Atsushi Yogō [ja] (Rd. 3)
2017	No entries

ST-TCR Class (2017–present)

Year	Team	Vehicle	Drivers
2023	M&K Racing	Honda Civic Type R TCR (FL5)	Mitsuhiro Endō Yūsuke Mitsui (Rd. 4) Tōsei Moriyama (Rd. 4–5) Shinji Nakano (Rd. 5–7) Takashi Kobayashi (Rd. 7)
2022	Team Noah (Rd. 1-2, 4-5, 7)	Honda Civic Type R TCR	Yoshikazu Sobu Toshiro Tsukada (Rd. 1-2, 4) Shigetomo Shimono (Rd. 1, 7) Shingo Wada (Rd. 1, 7) Yu Kanamaru (Rd. 2) Koji Miura (Rd. 2) "J" Antonio (Rd. 2, 5, 7) Yuji Kiyotaki (Rd. 2, 4-5) Yasuhiro Ogushi (Rd. 4) Kuniyuki Haga (Rd. 5)
2021	Team Noah	Honda Civic Type R TCR	Yoshikazu Sobu Shigetomo Shimono Kuniyuki Haga (Rd. 1, 3, 5) Riki Tanioka (Rd. 1, 3) Toshiro Tsukada (Rd. 2–4, 6) Yuji Kiyotaki (Rd. 2–4, 6) Shingo Wada (Rd. 5)
2020	Floral Racing with Uematsu	Honda Civic Type R TCR	Tadao Uematsu [ja] Yuji Ide Shintaro Kawabata Tomoki Nojiri (Rd. 1)
2019	Birth Racing Project	Audi RS 3 LMS TCR	Takeshi Matsumoto Takuro Shinohara "Hirobon" (Rd.1) Yuya Ohta (Rd. 2–6) Kouichi Okumura (Rd. 3)
2018	Modulo Racing with Dome	Honda Civic Type R TCR	Tadao Uematsu Shinji Nakano Hiroki Otsu Takashi Kobayashi (Rd. 1, 3–6) Keishi Ishikawa (Rd. 3)
2017	Motul Dome Racing Project	Honda Civic Type R TCR	Takuya Kurosawa Keishi Ishikawa Hiroki Katoh Hiroki Yoshida (Rd. 5)

ST-1 Class (1991–present)

Bold drivers indicate a driver that entered scored every possible point for their respective teams. Drivers listed in italics competed in a select number of rounds for their respective team.

Year	Team	Vehicle	Drivers
2023	K's Frontier KTM Cars	KTM X-Bow GTX	Taiyō Iida Hiroki Katoh Kazuho Takahashi Hiroki Yoshimoto Takashi Kobayashi (Rd. 2)
2022	K's Frontier KTM Cars	KTM X-Bow GTX	Taiyō Iida Hiroki Katoh Kazuho Takahashi Hiroki Yoshimoto Takashi Kobayashi (Rd. 2)
2021	KTM Cars Japan	KTM X-Bow GTX	Taiyō Iida Hiroki Katoh Kazuho Takahashi Takashi Kobayashi (Rd. 3) Hiroki Yoshimoto (Rd. 3–6)
2020	ROOKIE Racing	Toyota GR Supra	Naoya Gamou Daisuke Toyoda Yasuhiro Ogura Shunsuke Kohno Hisashi Yabuki (Rd. 1) Kazuya Oshima (Rd. 1)
2019	D'station Racing	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	Kenji Hama Tatsuya Hoshino Manabu Orido Kenji Kobayashi (Rd. 3) Tsubasa Kondō [ja] (Rd. 3)
2018	D'station Racing	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	Kenji Hama Tatsuya Hoshino Manabu Orido Kenji Kobayashi (Rd. 3) Ryūichirō Tomita [ja] (Rd. 3) Lee Jung-woo (Rd. 3)
2017	apr	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	Masami Kageyama Katsuhito Ogawa Ryūichirō Tomita [ja]
2016	D'station Racing	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	Seiji Ara Satoshi Hoshino [ja] Tatsuya Hoshino (Rd. 4) Lee Jung-woo (Rd. 4)
2015	BEND	BMW Z4 (E86)	Daisuke Ikeda [ja] Masamitsu Ishihara Yūya Sakamoto Atsushi Yogō [ja]
2014	Tomei Sports	IPS kuruma01	Osamu Hatakenaka (Rd. 1–5) Ryō Hirakawa (Rd. 1–5) Yuichi Nakayama (Rd. 1–5) Andrea Caldarelli (Rd. 6) Kenta Yamashita (Rd. 6)
2013	Faust Racing Team	BMW Z4 (E86)	Kazutomo Robert Hori Shigeru Satō Naoya Yamano [ja] (Rd. 1–5)
2012	Endless Sports	NISMO Amuse 380RS	Kyōsuke Mineo [ja] Shinichi Takagi Yukinori Taniguchi
2011	Petronas Syntium Team	BMW Z4 (E86)	Dominic Ang Nobuteru Taniguchi Masataka Yanagida
2010	Petronas Syntium Team	BMW Z4 (E86)	Imran Shaharom Nobuteru Taniguchi Masataka Yanagida
2009	Petronas Syntium Team	BMW Z4 (E86)	Fariqe Hairuman Nobuteru Taniguchi Masataka Yanagida
2008	Petronas Syntium Team	BMW Z4 (E86)	Johan bin Azdmi Tatsuya Kataoka Nobuteru Taniguchi

ST-3 Class (1991–present)

Bold drivers indicate a driver that entered scored every possible point for their respective teams. Drivers listed in italics competed in a select number of rounds for their respective team.

Year	Team	Vehicle	Drivers
2023	TRACYSPORTS with DELTA	Lexus RC 350	Shunsuke Ozaki Yoshiyuki Tsuruga Toshiki Ishimori Takanobu Ishizuka (Rd. 2, 4–7) Sesshū Kondō (Rd. 2)
2022	TRACYSPORTS with DELTA	Lexus RC 350	Yūsuke Tomibayashi Takashi Itō Hirotaka Ishii Takuya Ōtaki (Rd. 1–2, 4) Dai Mizuno (Rd. 2) Gento Miyashita (Rd. 2)
2021	TRACY SPORTS with Delta	Lexus RC 350	Yūsuke Tomibayashi Kazuya Ōshima Hirotaka Ishii (Rd. 2–6) Yoshiyuki Tsuruga (Rd. 3) Ryūta Ukai (Rd. 3) Akira Tuchida (Rd. 3)
2020	TRACY SPORTS	Lexus RC 350	Kazuya Ōshima Yūsuke Tomibayashi Hirotaka Ishii Sesshū Kondō (Rd. 1) Hirohito Itō (Rd. 1) Yoshihiro Itō (Rd. 4)
2019	TECHNO FIRST	Lexus RC 350	Yūya Tezuka Riki Ōkusa Shūji Maejima Takao Ohnishi (Rd. 3)
2018	TRACY SPORTS	Lexus RC 350	Makoto Hotta Ryōhei Sakaguchi [ja] Morio Nitta (Rd. 3–4)
2017	TRACYSPORTS	Lexus IS 350	Yūya Tezuka Shūji Maejima Akira Suzuki Taketoshi Matsui (Rd. 5)
2016	TRACYSPORTS	Lexus IS 350	Makoto Hotta Ryōhei Sakaguchi [ja] Yūhi Sekiguchi (Rd. 4)
2015	OKABEJIDOSHA motorsport	Nissan Fairlady Z (Z34)	Masaaki Nagashima Tooru Tanaka Tetsuya Tanaka Daisuke Imamura (Rd. 3)
2014	Techno First Racing Team	Nissan Fairlady Z (Z34)	Shūji Maejima Masahiro Sasaki [ja] Kazuki Hirokawa Hironobu Yasuda (Rd. 3)
2013	OTG Motor Sports	Lexus GS 350 (GRS191)	Shinya Satō Hiroki Yoshimoto (Rd. 1–2, 4–7) Shigekazu Wakisaka (Rd. 3–7)
2012	OKABE JIDOSHA motor sport	Mazda RX-7 (FD3S)	Kazuomi Komatsu Kenichi Sugibayashi Yoshinobu Masuda
2011	KOTA RACING	Honda NSX (NA2)	Kōta Sasaki Hiromasa Kitano Tatsuya Hashimoto (Rd. 1, 3–4) Tohjirō Azuma (Rd. 2, 5–6)
2010	MAKIGUCHI ENGINEERING	BMW M3 (E46)	Isao Ihashi [ja] Hideki Hirota Yoshihisa Namekata (Rd. 1–2) Shinsuke Misawa (Rd. 3–7)
2009	TEAM 5ZIGEN	Honda NSX (NA2)	Katsuyuki Hiranaka Kōsuke Matsuura Hiroki Yoshimoto
2008	EXEDY H.I.S. ings	Nissan Fairlady Z (Z33)	Shūji Maejima Masahiro Sasaki [ja] Subaru Yamamoto (Rd. 4)

Incidents

During a 2012 race at Suzuka Circuit (a support event for the 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Japan), Osamu Nakajima, driving a Nissan Fairlady Z (Z33), died after crashing into a barrier at the first corner of the circuit.

References

1. "Eneos Becomes Title Sponsor Of The Super Taikyu Series | dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 2022-03-09.
2. "Super Taikyu Completes Official Pre-Season Test At Fuji | dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
3. CORPORATION, TOYOTA MOTOR. "Toyota Developing Hydrogen Engine Technologies Through Motorsports | Corporate | Global Newsroom". Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
4. "MAZDA NEWSROOM｜Mazda to Participate in Motor Sports Race Powered by Next-Generation Biodiesel Fuel｜NEWS RELEASES". Mazda News Releases. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
5. CORPORATION, TOYOTA MOTOR. "Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Subaru, Toyota, Mazda, and Yamaha Take on Challenge to Expand Options for Producing, Transporting, and Using Fuel Toward Achieving Carbon Neutrality | Corporate | Global Newsroom". Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
6. "Nissan Z Racing Concept for Fuji 24-hour race unveiled". Official Global Newsroom. 2022-06-04. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
7. "57 Cars Entered For Super Taikyu Finale at Suzuka | dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
8. CORPORATION, TOYOTA MOTOR. "FEATURES｜World-First! Liquid Hydrogen Official Race Test at Fuji｜TOYOTA TIMES". TOYOTA TIMES. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
9. "New Super Taikyu ST-Q Entries From Honda, Nissan Revealed | dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 2023-05-25.
10. "Super Taikyu 2022 Sporting Regulation" (PDF) (in Japanese). Retrieved 2 December 2022.
11. "スーパー耐久シリーズ 2021年からハンコックをタイヤサプライヤーに決定 | 【公式】スーパー耐久シリーズ Powered by Hankook". supertaikyu.com. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
12. "Bridgestone Replaces Hankook As Super Taikyu Tyre Supplier With Immediate Effect | dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 2023-05-25.
13. "Osamu Nakajima". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 2013-07-22.

External links

• Official website
• Guide to Super Taikyu by Dailysportscar

• Super Taikyu
• 1991 establishments in Japan
• Auto racing series in Japan
• Recurring sporting events established in 1991
• Endurance motor racing
• Group GT3
• GT4 (sports car class)