The first joint races between Japanese Super GT and the German DTM championship will be held in Europe and Asia later this year.

Single-car GT500 entries from Toyota, Honda and Nissan will join Audi, BMW and Aston Martin on the DTM grid for the Hockenheim season finale in early October, while a non-championship race will be held at Fuji on November 23-24 involving cars from both series.

Discussions for a joint race in 2019 have been taking place for several months as part of the growing cohesion between the two championships.

DTM is introducing the new Class One rulebook this year while Super GT will adopt the same set of regulations in 2020.

The chairman of Super GT governing body GTA, Masaaki Bandoh, said the first shared races between the two series will be “commemorative” events.

“I would like to express my sincere thanks to ITR president Gerhard Berger and others for their efforts,” he said.

“Unfortunately, Mercedes, which was a member at the beginning of the plan, withdrew from the DTM series, but Aston Martin has announced its participation, and the general framework of six Japanese-German manufacturers will be maintained. I think that is good news.”

Bandoh’s counterpart Gerhard Berger, chairman of DTM promoter ITR, also welcomed the collaboration.

“We are happy to have taken a big step towards holding a joint event with Super GT and DTM,” said Berger.

“This is a milestone for the GTA-ITR partnership. I would like to thank Mr. Masaaki Bandoh, representative of GTA, and the people of Fuji Speedway for their hard work.”