The entry list for the first official pre-season test for the 2019 Autobacs Super GT Series has been published by the GT Association (GTA) in anticipation for the two-day test session on 16-17 March at Okayama International Circuit.

The test will be open to spectators, starting on Saturday 16 March with the morning test session from 9:50 to 11:50 AM JST (local time), and the afternoon session set for 2:00 to 4:10 PM JST. Sunday 17 March will also have a morning and afternoon session, from 9:00-11:10 AM JST, and 1:45-4:00 PM JST respectively.

All 44 full-season teams will be at the test, the 15 GT500 teams and the 29 GT300 teams, and their drivers.

The GT500 entry list has one notable omission as Kazuki Nakajima will not take part – Nakajima will, of course, be honouring his commitments in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Toyota Gazoo Racing that weekend at the 1000 Miles of Sebring.

In his place, 19-year-old Toyota Young Driver Program (TDP) prospect Ritomo Miyata will drive the #36 au TOM’s Lexus LC500 alongside regular driver Yuhi Sekiguchi on Sunday, after testing his regular ride, the #60 Syntium LM Corsa Lexus RC F GT3, on Saturday.

This change may indicate that Miyata, who is entering his second full season in GT300 this year, would take Nakajima’s place in the Fuji 500km on 4 May, with Nakajima set to take part in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps that same weekend.

Apart from that one change, all of the top stars in GT500 will be on hand, led by the defending series champions Naoki Yamamoto and Jenson Button in the #1 Raybrig NSX-GT for Team Kunimitsu.

On the GT300 side of the equation, the upcoming test at Okayama will mark the first public testing appearances of the new front-engined Toyota GR Sports Prius PHV apr GTs, and the first public appearances in Japan for the second-generation Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of D’station Racing AMR and the new McLaren 720S GT3 of McLaren Customer Racing Japan (Team Goh).

2010 GT500 Drivers’ Champion Takashi Kogure will be at the test, driving the #88 Team JLOC Lamborghini Huracán GT3 with Yuya Motojima, who drove the car this past weekend at the Suzuka Motorsports Festival. 38-year-old Kogure was dropped from Honda’s GT500 roster this January, and had been unsure of his plans going into 2019 – but could be in the process of moving to JLOC this season.

Team JLOC is also bringing three drivers to test their #87 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 – 2015 GT300 Champion, André Couto, and reigning Super Taikyu ST-X Class Champion, Kiyoto Fujinami, will join 23-year-old Tsubasa Takahashi for the test. Takahashi was this car’s third driver in 2018.

JLOC have not officially announced their 2019 driver lineups for their two cars, but the entry list for this test will surely give the public an indication of their plans for the upcoming season.

Sean Walkinshaw will get another testing opportunity in the #35 arto Lexus RC F GT3 for Panther arto Team Thailand, listed as the second driver alongside Nattapong Horthongkum, and third driver Nattavude Charoensukhawatana.

Team Mach will bring an unchanged lineup of Natsu Sakaguchi and Yuya Hiraki to the test to drive their #5 Dome/Toyota 86 MC, with team owner Tetsuji Tamanaka also listed as a third driver for the test.

In total, ten teams have appointed three-driver lineups for the test session: Alessio Picariello (Audi Team Hitotsuyama), Yuya Tezuka (Arnage Racing), Teruhiko Hamano (NILZZ Racing), Akihiro Tsuzuki (Pacific Racing with Good Speed), Shinnosuke Yamada (Team UPGarage), Takeshi Tsuchiya (Tsuchiya Engineering), and Yusaku Shibata (Tomei Sports) will round off the entry list.

ENTRY LIST >>

Images courtesy of Toyota and the GT Association