The 2018 Autobacs Super GT Series was the twenty-sixth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the fourteenth season the series has competed under the Super GT name. It was the thirty-sixth overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The season began on April 8 and ended on November 11, after 8 races.
In the GT500 class, Team Kunimitsu won their first-ever championship with the all-star lineup of series veteran Naoki Yamamoto and 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button, narrowly beating defending champions Ryō Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy at the final race in Motegi to clinch the title after both teams came in to the race tied in points. It was the first championship title for Honda in the GT500 class since 2010. Yamamoto, who had won the 2018 Super Formula title before the season finale, became just the fourth driver to win both the GT500 and Super Formula titles in the same year, while Button became the first rookie to win the GT500 title since Tora Takagi in 2005.
In the GT300 class, the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG fielded by K2 R&D LEON Racing won the championship in Motegi after overcoming a 12-point deficit over the then-points leader No. 55 ARTA BMW, giving series veteran Haruki Kurosawa and Naoya Gamou their first championship title in the series. The No. 55 ARTA team, despite winning two races in the season, were ultimately too inconsistent in their championship challenge, as two races without scoring a point coupled with poor performance in both Sugo and Motegi ultimately cost them the championship over the more consistent LEON AMG. The No. 31 Toyota Prius apr GT of Koki Saga and Kohei Hirate would finish third, just one point behind the ARTA BMW, while defending champions Goodsmile Racing finished fourth after a poor start to the season and a tire issue in Autopolis ultimately cost them the chance to defend the title.
Round | Race | Circuit | Date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Okayama GT 300 km | Okayama International Circuit | April 7–8 |
2 | Fuji GT 500 km | Fuji Speedway | May 3–4 |
3 | Suzuka GT 300 km | Suzuka Circuit | May 19–20 |
4 | Buriram United Super GT Race 300 km | Chang International Circuit | June 30 – July 1 |
5 | Fuji GT 500 miles | Fuji Speedway | August 4–5 |
6 | Sugo GT 300 km | Sportsland Sugo | September 15–16 |
7 | Autopolis GT 300 km | Autopolis | October 20–21 |
8 | Motegi GT 250 km | Twin Ring Motegi | November 10–11 |
Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Pole |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Points | 20 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Fuji 500 mile | 25 | 18 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|
Rank | Driver | Team | OKA | FUJ | SUZ | CHA | FUJ | SUG | AUT | MOT | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Haruki Kurosawa Naoya Gamou | No. 65 K2 R&D LEON Racing | 4 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 68 |
2 | Shinichi Takagi Sean Walkinshaw | No. 55 ARTA | 6 | 1 | 20 | 11 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 9 | 62 |
3 | Koki Saga Kohei Hirate | No. 31 apr | Ret | 2 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 25 | 10 | 2 | 61 |
4 | Nobuteru Taniguchi Tatsuya Kataoka | No. 0 Goodsmile Racing with Team Ukyo | 8 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 19 | 3 | 56 |
5 | Katsuyuki Hiranaka Hironobu Yasuda | No. 11 GAINER | 5 | 3 | 16 | 1 | 22 | 19 | 6 | 5 | 48 |
6 | Morio Nitta Yuichi Nakayama | No.96 K-tunes Racing LM Corsa | 14 | 14 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 14 | 1 | 10 | 45 |
7 | Takamitsu Matsui | No. 25 Tsuchiya Engineering | 3 | Ret | 2 | 19 | 5 | 24 | 24 | 8 | 39 |
Sho Tsuboi | No. 25 Tsuchiya Engineering | 3 | 2 | 19 | 5 | 24 | 24 | 8 | 39 | ||
8 | Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi | No. 61 R&D Sport | 18 | Ret | 3 | Ret | Ret | 1 | 15 | 6 | 37 |
9 | Tomonobu Fujii Sven Müller | No. 7 D'station Racing | 2 | 6 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 8 | 7 | 35 |
10 | Kazuki Hiramine | No. 88 JLOC | 7 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 13 | 27 | 33 |
11 | Kimiya Sato Yuya Motojima | No. 87 JLOC | 12 | 16 | 12 | 5 | Ret | 13 | 2 | 4 | 29 |
12 | Yuhki Nakayama Takashi Kobayshi | No. 18 Team UpGarage | 1 | 13 | 6 | 18 | 9 | 11 | 27 | Ret | 28 |
13 | Marco Mapelli | No. 88 JLOC | 7 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 13 | 27 | 28 | |
14 | Ryo Michigami Hiroki Otsu | No. 34 Modulo Drago Corse | Ret | 8 | 26 | 9 | DNS | 4 | 3 | 14 | 24 |
15 | Ritomo Miyata Hiroki Yoshimoto | No. 60 LM Corsa | 17 | 7 | 5 | 3 | Ret | 9 | 12 | 24 | 23 |
16 | Kazuki Hoshino Hiroki Yoshida | No. 10 GAINER | 13 | 11 | 10 | Ret | 8 | 2 | 9 | 15 | 22 |
17 | Rintaro Kubo Keishi Ishikawa | No. 9 Pacific with Gulf Racing | 16 | 17 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 6 | 11 | 12 | 5 |
18 | Andrea Caldarelli | No. JLOC | 6 | 5 | |||||||
19 | Taku Bamba Shigekazu Wakisaka | No. 52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave | 11 | 19 | 14 | 17 | Ret | 7 | 17 | 13 | 4 |
20 | Natsu Sakaguchi Yuya Hiraki | No. 5 Team Mach | Ret | 12 | Ret | 19 | 22 | 7 | 18 | 4 | |
21 | Shintaro Kawabata Shinnosuke Yamada | No. 26 Team Taisan | 9 | 15 | 28 | Ret | 20 | 20 | 16 | 2 | |
22 | Richard Lyons Ryuichiro Tomita | No. 21 Audi Team Hitotsuyama | Ret | 10 | 23 | Ret | 14 | 23 | 14 | 11 | 1 |
23 | Masaki Kano Hideto Yasuoka | No. 50 Arnage Racing | 10 | 20 | 19 | 13 | 11 | 17 | 16 | 20 | 1 |
24 | Tsubasa Kondo | No. 25 Tsuchiya Engineering | Ret | 5 | 1 | ||||||
- | Takuro Shinohara | No. 21 Audi Team Hitotsuyama | 10 [a] | 14 | 0 | ||||||
- | Yuya Sakamoto | No. 50 Arnage Racing | 20 | 11 | 0 | ||||||
- | Kazuho Takahashi Hiroki Katoh | No. 2 Cars Tokai Dream28 | 23 | 23 | 13 | 12 | 20 | Ret | 21 | 22 | 0 |
- | Yusaku Shibata | No. 360 Tomei Sports | Ret | 12 | Ret | 23 | 17 | 0 | |||
- | Takayuki Aoki | No. 360 Tomei Sports | Ret | Ret | 27 | 12 | Ret | 17 | 0 | ||
- | Masataka Yanagida | No. 360 Tomei Sports | 12 | 0 | |||||||
- | Tetsuji Tamanaka | No. 5 Team Mach | 12 | 0 | |||||||
- | Yuji Ide Ryohei Sakaguchi | No. 117 EIcars Bentley | 21 | 22 | 18 | 13 | 15 | 18 | 19 | 0 | |
- | Jules Gounon | No. 117 EIcars Bentley | 13 | 0 | |||||||
- | Maxime Jousse Kantadhee Kusiri | No. 32 est cola by AAS Motorsport | 14 | 0 | |||||||
- | Nattavude Charoensukhawatana Nattapong Horthongkum | No. 35 Arto Panther Team Thailand | 24 | 24 | 24 | 15 | 16 | 18 | 22 | 25 | 0 |
- | Takeshi Kimura Naoki Yokomizo | No. CarGuy Racing | 15 | 26 | 21 | 17 | Ret | 23 | 0 | ||
- | Kyosuke Mineo | No. 9 Pacific with Gulf Racing | 15 | 0 | |||||||
- | Shinji Nakano | No. 26 Team Taisan | 15 | Ret | 0 | ||||||
- | Hiroaki Nagai | No. 30 apr | 20 | 18 | 17 | Ret | Ret | 16 | 26 | 21 | 0 |
- | Manabu Orido | No. 30 apr | Ret | 16 | 26 | 21 | 0 | ||||
- | Koji Yamanishi | No. 35 Arto Panther Team Thailand | 16 | 0 | |||||||
- | Tsubasa Takahashi | No. 87 JLOC | 16 | Ret | 0 | ||||||
- | Kota Sasaki | No. 30 apr | 20 | 18 | 17 | Ret | Ret | 0 | |||
- | Masaki Tanaka | No. 48 Dijon Racing | 22 | 21 | 22 | 18 | 21 | 28 | 26 | 0 | |
- | Richard Bradley | No. 48 Dijon Racing | 21 | 22 | 18 | 28 | 26 | 0 | |||
- | Taiyou Iida | No. 48 Dijon Racing | 22 | 21 | 18 | 0 | |||||
- | Masaki Jyonai Hisashi Wada | No. 22 R'Qs Motor Sports | 19 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 25 | 28 | 0 | ||
- | Kiyoto Fujinami | No. 5 Team Mach | 19 | 0 | |||||||
- | Masayuki Ueda | No. 22 R'Qs Motor Sports | 21 | 0 | |||||||
- | Hiroshi Takamori | No. 48 Dijon Racing | 21 | 0 | |||||||
- | Atsushi Tanaka | No. 360 Tomei Sports | Ret | 27 | 23 | 0 | |||||
- | Kei Cozzolino | No. 777 CarGuy Racing | 26 | 0 | |||||||
- | Takeshi Tsuchiya | No. 25 Tsuchiya Engineering | Ret | 0 | |||||||
Rank | Driver | Team | OKA | FUJ | SUZ | CHA | FUJ | SUG | AUT | MOT | Points |
Super GT is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the Zen Nihon GT Senshuken (全日本GT選手権), generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of sports car racing in Japan.
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