Revving Innovation: Team LeMans’ Shift To Ferrari ‘296 GT3’

Competitive drivers from abroad!

On 13-14 April 2024 (Saturday-Sunday), the 2024 season of SUPER GT, Japan’s premier GT car race, began at Okayama International Circuit in Okayama Prefecture. While three manufacturers, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda, compete in the GT500 class, the GT300 class has become a kind of cross-fighting competition with import car brands mixed in. Here we introduce the machines competing in the GT300 class. In this first installment, we present cars No. 2 to No. 7!

The remarkable Ferrari 296 GT3 enters the race!

The GT300 class of SUPER GT is fought by a mixture of JAF-GT machines, mother chassis, and FIA GT3 machines. Not only domestic cars but also imported cars enter the race, attracting the attention of many fans.

Of these, the No. 6 Team LeMans car, which had been competing in an Audi R8 in the 2023 season, has changed cars to a Ferrari 296 GT3. Drivers Yoshiaki Katayama and Roberto Merhi Muntan remain unchanged. It will be interesting to see how much more competitive the new machine will be.

New faces can also be seen among the drivers, with Hiroki Kato’s name registered as C driver for car 2, the muta Racing GR86 GT. Kato has raced on this machine for many years and knows it well, so he will have a good influence on the two young drivers, Yuui Tsutsumi and Hibiki Taira.

Car No. 5, the “Mach Kashoken Air Buster MC86 Mach”, will have two new drivers: Yusuke Shiotsu, who drove for GAINER until the 2023 season, and Seito Fujinami, who left Nissan/Nismo at the end of the 2023 season. Both drivers have changed machines from the GT-R, but as they have plenty of experience in the GT300 class, expectations are high for a spurt from the opening round.

The No. 7 Studie BMW M4 is the team’s new German driver Niklas Klutten, who joins the duo of Seiji Ara and BMW works driver Bruno Spengler, who in 2023 won the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Gold class. The addition of Niklas Klutten, who drove the same M4 GT3 in Europe and was crowned champion of the year, has greatly increased the fighting power of BMW M Team Studie x CRS.

Car 4, the Good Smile Hatsune Miku AMG, maintained its solid line-up of Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka. Both are top-class in terms of popularity and ability, and both know the Mercedes-AMG GT3 inside out, so we look forward to seeing them on the top step of the podium in the 2024 season.