The Suzuka Summer Endurance Race is an annual sports car endurance race that was last held at the Suzuka International Racing Course, Mie Prefecture, Japan in 2019. The race was first held in 1966 as the Suzuka 1000km. In 2018, the event was reformatted and renamed to the Suzuka 10 Hours and became part of the SRO Intercontinental GT Challenge.
The Nine Hours of Kyalami is an endurance sports car race contested at Kyalami, Midrand, South Africa. The first races were held from 1958 to 1960 at a circuit at the Grand Central Airport near Midrand before moving to Kyalami in 1961. The event was a mainstay until the late 1980s; however, it was only held three times between 1989 and 2018. The 1974 event was a round of the World Championship of Makes and the 1983 and 1984 races were rounds of the World Endurance Championship. The event was revived in 2019 as part of the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge.
Raffaele "Lello" Marciello is a Swiss-born Italian professional racing driver. A former member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, he was the 2013 European Formula Three Champion, a reserve and test driver for the Sauber Formula One team in 2015, and spent three seasons competing in the GP2 Series. He switched to GT racing in 2017 and became a works Mercedes-AMG driver ahead of the 2018 campaign, where he stayed until leaving in 2023 and subsequently signing with BMW. In 2022, Marciello earned his first major endurance race victory by winning the Spa 24 Hours.
Naoki Yamamoto is a Japanese racing driver for Honda Racing Corporation, currently driving in the Autobacs Super GT Series with Team Kunimitsu, and the Japanese Super Formula Championship with Nakajima Racing. He is a three-time champion in Super Formula, and a two-time champion in the GT500 class of Super GT. Yamamoto is also the only driver to have won both the Super Formula and GT500 championships in the same season multiple times, a feat which he accomplished in 2018 and 2020.
Group GT3, known technically as Cup Grand Touring Cars and commonly referred to as simply GT3, is a set of regulations maintained by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for grand tourer racing cars designed for use in various auto racing series throughout the world. The GT3 category was initially created in 2005 by the SRO Group as a third rung in the ladder of grand touring motorsport, below the Group GT1 and Group GT2 categories which were utilized in the SRO's FIA GT Championship, and launched its own series in 2006 called the FIA GT3 European Championship. Since then, Group GT3 has expanded to become the de facto category for many national and international grand touring series, although some series modify the ruleset from the FIA standard. By 2013, nearly 20 automobile manufacturers have built or been represented with GT3 machines.
Katsumasa Chiyo is a Japanese factory racing driver, currently competing in the Autobacs Super GT Series as a factory driver for Nissan. He is a graduate of the Nissan Driver Development Program (NDDP), and a past champion of the Bathurst 12 Hour race, and the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.
The Intercontinental GT Challenge is a sports car racing series developed by the SRO Group in 2016. It consists of international endurance races for grand tourer racing cars complying with the FIA's GT3 regulations.
The 2018 Intercontinental GT Challenge was the third season of the Intercontinental GT Challenge. The season featured four rounds, starting with the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour on 4 February and concluding with the California 8 Hours on 28 October. Markus Winkelhock was the defending Drivers' champion and Audi was the defending Manufacturers' champion.
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.
Côme Ledogar is a professional racing driver from France. He is best known for winning the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup overall title in 2016, with Robert Bell and Shane van Gisbergen, and for winning the 2021 24 Hours of Spa overall and the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans in the GTE Pro class.
The 2019 Suzuka 10 Hours was an endurance event that took place on August 25, 2019, at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka City, Japan. It was the 48th edition of the Summer Endurance Classic at Suzuka, and the third round of the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge. Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is the most recent running of the Suzuka Summer Endurance Classic as of 2022.
Super Taikyu, 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 Supported by Bridgestone for sponsorship reasons, is a Japanese endurance racing series that began in 1991. In contrast to the Super GT Series, the Super Taikyu Series 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.
The 2020 Intercontinental GT Challenge was the fifth season of the Intercontinental GT Challenge. The season again features five rounds, starting with the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour on 2 February and concluding with the Kyalami 9 Hours on 12 December. Dennis Olsen is the defending Drivers' champion and Porsche is the defending Manufacturers' champion.
The 2020 Super GT Series was motor racing championship based in Japan for grand touring cars. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and run by the GT Association (GTA). It was the twenty-eighth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship which includes the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the sixteenth season the series to compete under the Super GT name. It was the thirty-eighth overall season of a JAF national sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship.
The 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS was the sixteenth season of the United States Auto Club's GT World Challenge America, and the fifth under ownership of SRO Motorsports Group.The season began at Sonoma Raceway on April 15, and ended at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on October 8.
The 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup was the tenth season of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup following on from the demise of the SRO Motorsports Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, the second with the sponsorship of Fanatec.
The 2022 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup was the twelfth season of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup since its inception in 2011 as the Blancpain Endurance Series.
The 2022 Super GT Series was a motor racing championship based in Japan for grand touring cars, sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and run by the GT Association (GTA). It was the thirtieth season of the JAF Super GT Championship which includes the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship era, and the eighteenth season under the Super GT name. It was also the fortieth overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Endurance/Sports Prototype Championship.
The 2022 Intercontinental GT Challenge was the seventh season of the Intercontinental GT Challenge. It comprised four rounds starting with the Bathurst 12 Hour on 15 May with the finale at Gulf 12 Hours on 11 December.
The Indianapolis 8 Hour is an endurance sports car race contested at Indianapolis Motor Speedway using the infield road course, first held in 2020, making it the first ever endurance sports car race at this venue. The event is the US leg of the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) and the finale of the GT World Challenge America series.
